Unexpected Love
by Freckledfoe
Summary: When Hikari Uzumaki first meets Gaara of the sand, she is amazed by his power. As she begins learning more about him and becoming closer to him she can't help getting attached to him. This story starts off in Naruto but then heads into Naruto Shippuden. I don't own any characters but my own nor do I own Naruto.
1. Intro

**INTRO**

Name: Hikari Uzumaki (Naruto's twin sister)

Age: 12 (gets older as story progresses)

Family: Naruto (twin brother), Minato (father, deceased), Kushina (mother, deceased)

Personality: nice, funny, caring, protective of the ones she loves, smart for her age

Chakra Natures: Earth, Wind, Fire

Past: After she was born she was separated from Naruto and taken to the Village hidden in the clouds by a man named Obito. When she first arrived she had the two tails, Matatabi, sealed into her. They used her as a test subject to find out the powers of the two tails. One day they pushed too far and she destroyed half the base. She was kept captive there until shelearned about her brother. She escaped from the village and headed to Konoha where she introduced herself to Naruto and they became inseparable. They were both hated by the people but they were glad they had each other. She joined the academy with Naruto and is becoming a very skilled ninja. She has not told Naruto she is a Jinchuriki and she doesn't know Naruto is one either.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any characters or pictures, just the character I made up*

 **Chapter 1**

Hikari's POV :

"Today is the day Naruto. The day we get put on a new squad. Aren't you excited!?!" I yell as we walk to the academy.

"I hope I get put on a squad with Sakura." He says in a dreamy voice.

"I don't know what you see in her, she's a JERK to you Naruto! She's also ugly and has a crush on Sasuke! No wait not just a crush an OBSESSION!!"

"Don't talk about Sakura that way! She's so smart and pretty."

"Whatever."

Uggghhh Sakura. I hate her so much, all she ever does is stalk Sasuke and make fun of me and Naruto. Ino is the same way too. You know I don't understand what they see in Sasuke. He's so emo and he acts like he's all high and mighty but he's not! Just because he's the last Uchiha doesn't mean he's the center of the universe.

We arrive at the academy and I take a seat next to Hinata. I know she likes Naruto so I'm always trying to get her to confess her feelings to him. The only problem is Naruto doesn't even notice it. He's such an idiot sometimes.

"Hey Hinata! Are you excited about getting a squad?" I ask.

"Um uh I g-g-guess so." she stutters and looks nervously at her hands.

"I'm gunna guess you want to be on a squad with Naruto."

"W-w-well yeah I w-want to." she says when suddenly the door to the classroom slams open.

"I WAS HERE FIRST INO-PIG!!!!!!"

"NO, I WAS BILLBOARD BROW!!!!!!"

"Oh great Sakura and Ino are here, I wonder what they're fighting about now." I say to sarcastically.

"I WAS HERE FIRST SO I GET TO SIT NEXT TO SASUKE!" Ino yells

"Obviously I WAS HERE FIRST SO THAT MEANS I GET TO SIT NEXT TO SASUKE!!" Sakura yells back.

I can't take it anymore. I stand up and walk over to were Sasuke is sitting and take the empty seat next to him.

"Hikari! You can't take that seat!" Ino and Sakura scream at me as they run over.

"Ohh and why not?"

"Because I was going to sit there!" they both yell in unison.

"Too late." I smirk

"HOW DARE YOU!?!?!?!"

Suddenly Sakura pushes me out of the chair. Okay that's it, this is the last straw. I get up slowly trying to keep my anger under control. Everyone in the room goes quiet, they all stare at me, waiting to see what will happen next.

"How did you like that Hikari? That's what you get for taking my seat." Sakura smirks.

"You're pathetic." I say.

"What did you just say to me?"

"You heard me. I said you were pathetic. You think you're all high and mighty now because you pushed me out of a chair when I wasn't looking. Let me tell you something Sakura, I don't care if my brother likes you or not but if you touch me again I will not hesitate to beat you to a bloody pulp. I'm a lot stronger than you and you know it. Everyone knows it. So if I were you I would go find somewhere else to sit." I growl at her.

She looks into my eyes and goes pale. She backs away slowly and takes a seat on the other side of the room. I look around and everyone is staring at me. Great, now everyone is going to think I'm a freak, but then again most of them already do. I sigh and sit back down next to Sasuke and he just glares at me. I take that as a sign and get up, moving to a seat at the end of that table. Naruto takes a seat next to me and Sakura slowly sits down next to Sasuke, hoping I don't see her.

"You didn't have to be so mean to Sakura, Hikari." Naruto whispers.

"Naruto you may like her but that doesn't mean I do, so back off."

"Okay class, sit down and I will announce your squad number and members." Iruka explains while walking to the front of the class.

Iruka sensei starts listing off team names one by one until he final reaches mine.

"Squad 7 will be Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno..."

"HOORAY!!!!!!!" Naruto yells.

"I'm doomed."

"... Sasuke Uchiha..."

"HOORAY IN YOUR FACE INO-PIG!"

"Come on." Sasuke mutters and bangs his head on the table.

"... and Hikari Uzumaki."

"Great I'm stuck on a squad with two of the three people I hate the most." I mutter and follow Sasuke's lead.

I lift my head up and look over to Hinata, giving her an apologetic smile. I feel bad for her. She's had this crush on Naruto for forever and he hasn't even noticed it once. I shake my head disapprovingly and wait for Iruka to tell us what to do next.

"All of you will stay here and wait for your sensei to get you. Good luck." and with that he leaves.

(time skip 4 hours)

I am going to kill someone! We've been waiting here for FOUR HOURS and our sensei still hasn't come! I look over and notice Naruto is doing something with the blackboard eraser.

"Naruto, you baka, what are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm gunna pull a prank on our sensei because he's so late."

"Naruto our sensei isn't going to fall for that trick. It's the oldest in the book." Sakura buts in.

"Wait I hear someone coming."

We all sit eagerly waiting when a hand grabs the door and slowly pulls it open. The board eraser falls on the head of a silver haired man with a mask covering half of his face. I can't believe he fell for it. It's the oldest trick in the book. This guy is supposed to be a Jounin? He must be pretty stupid if he fell for that.

"My first impression of you is that you're all a bunch of idiots."

"That's what you get for being late!" Naruto blurts out.

"Everyone meet me on the roof." He says and poofs away.

"Great going Naruto, now our sensei thinks we're all idiots!" Sakura yells.

"You idiot." Sasuke sneers.

On the Roof

"Okay now that we're all here why don't we introduce ourselves." he says.

"You go first." I say.

"Fine. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have many likes and I have many dislikes. I do not have any plans for the future. Okay who's next?" he smiles, or at least I think he smiled.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I love Ichiraku ramen and instant ramen that comes in a cup and Sakura of course. I hate Sas-gay and one day I'm gunna be Hokage!"

"My name is Sakura Haruno. I love, well Sasuke of course, and I hate Naruto and Hikari. And one day I plan on marrying Sasuke," She swoons.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I also have many likes and dislikes which I do not feel the need to waste my breath talking about. And in the future the only thing I want to say is that I plan on killing a certain someone."

"Uhhhhhh... okay then, next." Kakashi says and looks at me.

"My name is Hikari Uzumaki. I like reading, singing, cooking, and ramen. I dislike Sakura, Ino, and Sasuke. And I don't have any dreams for the future yet."

"Okay then now that we all know each other a little better you can all go home, but be at the training grounds at 7:00am. We are doing a survival training exercise. Oh, don't eat anything or you'll throw up." and he poofs away again.

All of us sit there and look around at each other. I can already tell that this is going to suck, why did I have to get put on a team with Sakura AND Sasuke? I sigh and stand up, motioning for Naruto to follow my lead.

"Well he's a bit weird don't you think?" I ask.

"I can't believe he doesn't want us to eat." Naruto groans.

"All you ever think about is food Naruto. Come on, if you beat me home I'll make instant ramen for dinner."

"You're on!"

 **Chapter 2**

Hikari's POV:

I sit up yawning and look at the clock. It's 6:00 so that leaves me with one hour to get ready, wake up Naruto, and cook breakfast. I get out of bed and start my daily routine, I take a shower, get dressed, and then brush my teeth. When that's done I go to the kitchen and take out two packages of instant ramen and boil the water.

"Naruto get up we have to leave in 15 minutes!" I yell at him.

"Unnggghhhhh... 5 more minutes."

"If you don't get your butt out of bed and get in here I'm gunna eat your ramen!"

I hear some thumping and a crash and suddenly Naruto is in the kitchen dressed and ready to go.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Yes I would now come and eat your breakfast while it's still hot." I say.

"Ok ok - WAIT!!!!! Didn't Kakashi sensei tell us to not eat breakfast?"

"Oh crap! That's right, he did. Dang, I guess I made this ramen for no reason. I guess we can eat it for lunch." I sigh and store it in the fridge,"Come on Naruto, it's time to go, I don't want to be late."

"Yea yea yea I'm coming, sheesh you're so bossy sometimes."

"Oh shut up you big baby. Now hurry up it's almost 7:00."

15 minutes later Naruto and I get to the training grounds. Sakura and Sasuke are already there and, as expected, Sakura is "trying" to flirt with him. It will never work though, Sasuke likes no one but himself and he hates Sakura as much as I do, maybe more. I wish she would take a hint and stop trying to win him over.

(time skip 1 hour)

"Oh. My. God. I am going to KILL our sensei!" I scream.

"For once I'm going to agree with you." Sakura grumbles.

"I'm starving."

"Naruto all of us are starving."

A puff of smoke appears, signaling our sensei's arrival. I notice a book in his hand and turn away in disgust when I realize it's one of those MakeoutParadise books. How can he read those?

"Sorry I'm late guy's I got lost on the path of life." Kakashi says, smilingbeneath his mask.

"Save your excuses for later you perv."

Kakashi sensei glares at me, but sighs and begins explaining whats going to happen with this survival exercise. I listen intently to his explanation and I smile. This whole exercise is based off of teamwork, thus should be a cinch.

(time skip)

Well this exercise is going terribly. No one would listen to me when I said this was a test of team work and now its coming back to bite them in the butt. Pinky is unconscious, Sasuke is stuck, from the head down, in the ground, and Naruto is tied to a post. Why did he try to steal those stupid lunches? I'm the only one left and I know Kakashi is waiting for me to attack him, so my only hope is togo help Sasuke so he can help me. I hate to do it, but it has to be done. I quietly make my way to where Sasuke is and land softly on the grass next to his head.

"Hey Sasuke, need some help?" I tease.

"Oh shut up and help me."

"Fine, but when I get you out we both have to go beat Kakashi sensei together. This exercise is on team work. If we work together we can get the bells. After all, you and I are some of the best in the academy."

"Whatever, just get me out."

"Earth style earth pit!" I yell.

The rock and dirt covering Sasuke widens out causing the hole to grow larger. Sasuke falls to the bottom of the pit and glares up at me.

"Well thanks. That made things soooo much better." he says sarcastically.

"Hey, at least you can move now. Now quit whiningand jump up here."

Sasuke jumpsout and we make our way to Kakashi. I sense his chakra and tell Sasuke to slow down. We jump to some trees a couple feet away and make a plan.

"Hey Kakashi." I say as I land quietly behind him.

"HIKARI!! Come help me. I've been tied to this post for hours!!" Naruto yells.

"I was wondering when you would fight me Hikari. You know time is almost up. You only have 15 minutes until lunch and the rest of your team is having problems of their own."

I smirk. I had hoped he would say that. I knew he would think Sasuke was still trapped in the ground. Now I know my plan won't fail.

"Yea, I know. The funny thing is I tried to tell them that this exercise was about team work but none of them would listen and they all had to pay the price for it." I say, "Poor Sakura. Why did you go so hard on her? You should know she has trouble figuring out genjutsus."

"Quit procrastinating. You only have 12 minutes now."

"Don't worry, I'll have those bells before then."

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"I plan on doing this." I say and slowly lift my hand up.

Kakashi givesme a questioning look and getsinto a fighting stance, ready for anything I might throw at him. I give a thumbs up and Kakashi looks at me. He stands back up.

"That was it? What is a thumbs up supposed t--"

Suddenly Sasuke is on top of a bewildered Kakashi. I've got to hurry up and do my jutsu before he gets Sasuke off of him which, by the looks of it,won't take long.

"Earth style rock chains!" I yell, and Sasuke quickly jumps off our recovering sensei.

I bind our sensei to the ground by chains made of rock and walk over to him, bending down to take the bells. He gives me an unreadable look and I just smile back. I turn to Sasuke and give him a bell then I walk over to Naruto (who is still tied to the post so i untie him) and give him one and then I give one to Sakura, who arrivesjust on time.

"I see you finally made it, Pinky."

"Oh shut up Hikari."

"Hey Hikari what about you? You need a bell to. Here you can have mine, after all, you were the one whoget them in the first place." Naruto offers.

"It's okay Naruto, I think our sensei will find it in his heart to allow me to pass."

"Hey, don't forget about me, I helped too." says a very annoyed Sasuke.

"Whatever you say duck butt." I laugh, "Hey Kakashi sensei, did I pass?" I ask with an innocent smile stretched across my face.

"Thanks to Hikari, you all pass." he says while getting up.

"What about me!!" yells Sasuke.

"And Sasuke too." said Kakashi, "You may all go home, we will be starting missions as soon as tomorrow."

"Hey anyone wanna go get ramen with me and Naruto? It's on me." I say.

"OH YEA RAMEN I'M STARVING!" Naruto yells.

"Of course you are Naruto, you always are." I say, "Seriously no one wants ramen."

"I guess I'll tag along." says Sakura.

"Hn." Sasuke says.

"I'm gunna take that as a yes from all of you. To Ichiraku's!" I yell and point in the direction of my favorite restaurant.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Hikari's POV :

"Today is the day Naruto. The day we get put on a new squad. Aren't you excited!?!" I yell as we walk to the academy.

"I hope I get put on a squad with Sakura." He says in a dreamy voice.

"I don't know what you see in her, she's a JERK to you Naruto! She's also ugly and has a crush on Sasuke! No wait not just a crush an OBSESSION!!"

"Don't talk about Sakura that way! She's so smart and pretty."

"Whatever."

Uggghhh Sakura. I hate her so much, all she ever does is stalk Sasuke and make fun of me and Naruto. Ino is the same way too. You know I don't understand what they see in Sasuke. He's so emo and he acts like he's all high and mighty but he's not! Just because he's the last Uchiha doesn't mean he's the center of the universe.

We arrive at the academy and I take a seat next to Hinata. I know she likes Naruto so I'm always trying to get her to confess her feelings to him. The only problem is Naruto doesn't even notice it. He's such an idiot sometimes.

"Hey Hinata! Are you excited about getting a squad?" I ask.

"Um uh I g-g-guess so." she stutters and looks nervously at her hands.

"I'm gunna guess you want to be on a squad with Naruto."

"W-w-well yeah I w-want to." she says when suddenly the door to the classroom slams open.

"I WAS HERE FIRST INO-PIG!!!!!!"

"NO, I WAS BILLBOARD BROW!!!!!!"

"Oh great Sakura and Ino are here, I wonder what they're fighting about now." I say to sarcastically.

"I WAS HERE FIRST SO I GET TO SIT NEXT TO SASUKE!" Ino yells

"Obviously I WAS HERE FIRST SO THAT MEANS I GET TO SIT NEXT TO SASUKE!!" Sakura yells back.

I can't take it anymore. I stand up and walk over to were Sasuke is sitting and take the empty seat next to him.

"Hikari! You can't take that seat!" Ino and Sakura scream at me as they run over.

"Ohh and why not?"

"Because I was going to sit there!" they both yell in unison.

"Too late." I smirk

"HOW DARE YOU!?!?!?!"

Suddenly Sakura pushes me out of the chair. Okay that's it, this is the last straw. I get up slowly trying to keep my anger under control. Everyone in the room goes quiet, they all stare at me, waiting to see what will happen next.

"How did you like that Hikari? That's what you get for taking my seat." Sakura smirks.

"You're pathetic." I say.

"What did you just say to me?"

"You heard me. I said you were pathetic. You think you're all high and mighty now because you pushed me out of a chair when I wasn't looking. Let me tell you something Sakura, I don't care if my brother likes you or not but if you touch me again I will not hesitate to beat you to a bloody pulp. I'm a lot stronger than you and you know it. Everyone knows it. So if I were you I would go find somewhere else to sit." I growl at her.

She looks into my eyes and goes pale. She backs away slowly and takes a seat on the other side of the room. I look around and everyone is staring at me. Great, now everyone is going to think I'm a freak, but then again most of them already do. I sigh and sit back down next to Sasuke and he just glares at me. I take that as a sign and get up, moving to a seat at the end of that table. Naruto takes a seat next to me and Sakura slowly sits down next to Sasuke, hoping I don't see her.

"You didn't have to be so mean to Sakura, Hikari." Naruto whispers.

"Naruto you may like her but that doesn't mean I do, so back off."

"Okay class, sit down and I will announce your squad number and members." Iruka explains while walking to the front of the class.

Iruka sensei starts listing off team names one by one until he final reaches mine.

"Squad 7 will be Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno..."

"HOORAY!!!!!!!" Naruto yells.

"I'm doomed."

"... Sasuke Uchiha..."

"HOORAY IN YOUR FACE INO-PIG!"

"Come on." Sasuke mutters and bangs his head on the table.

"... and Hikari Uzumaki."

"Great I'm stuck on a squad with two of the three people I hate the most." I mutter and follow Sasuke's lead.

I lift my head up and look over to Hinata, giving her an apologetic smile. I feel bad for her. She's had this crush on Naruto for forever and he hasn't even noticed it once. I shake my head disapprovingly and wait for Iruka to tell us what to do next.

"All of you will stay here and wait for your sensei to get you. Good luck." and with that he leaves.

(time skip 4 hours)

I am going to kill someone! We've been waiting here for FOUR HOURS and our sensei still hasn't come! I look over and notice Naruto is doing something with the blackboard eraser.

"Naruto, you baka, what are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm gunna pull a prank on our sensei because he's so late."

"Naruto our sensei isn't going to fall for that trick. It's the oldest in the book." Sakura buts in.

"Wait I hear someone coming."

We all sit eagerly waiting when a hand grabs the door and slowly pulls it open. The board eraser falls on the head of a silver haired man with a mask covering half of his face. I can't believe he fell for it. It's the oldest trick in the book. This guy is supposed to be a Jounin? He must be pretty stupid if he fell for that.

"My first impression of you is that you're all a bunch of idiots."

"That's what you get for being late!" Naruto blurts out.

"Everyone meet me on the roof." He says and poofs away.

"Great going Naruto, now our sensei thinks we're all idiots!" Sakura yells.

"You idiot." Sasuke sneers.

On the Roof

"Okay now that we're all here why don't we introduce ourselves." he says.

"You go first." I say.

"Fine. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have many likes and I have many dislikes. I do not have any plans for the future. Okay who's next?" he smiles, or at least I think he smiled.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I love Ichiraku ramen and instant ramen that comes in a cup and Sakura of course. I hate Sas-gay and one day I'm gunna be Hokage!"

"My name is Sakura Haruno. I love, well Sasuke of course, and I hate Naruto and Hikari. And one day I plan on marrying Sasuke," She swoons.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I also have many likes and dislikes which I do not feel the need to waste my breath talking about. And in the future the only thing I want to say is that I plan on killing a certain someone."

"Uhhhhhh... okay then, next." Kakashi says and looks at me.

"My name is Hikari Uzumaki. I like reading, singing, cooking, and ramen. I dislike Sakura, Ino, and Sasuke. And I don't have any dreams for the future yet."

"Okay then now that we all know each other a little better you can all go home, but be at the training grounds at 7:00am. We are doing a survival training exercise. Oh, don't eat anything or you'll throw up." and he poofs away again.

All of us sit there and look around at each other. I can already tell that this is going to suck, why did I have to get put on a team with Sakura AND Sasuke? I sigh and stand up, motioning for Naruto to follow my lead.

"Well he's a bit weird don't you think?" I ask.

"I can't believe he doesn't want us to eat." Naruto groans.

"All you ever think about is food Naruto. Come on, if you beat me home I'll make instant ramen for dinner."

"You're on!"


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Hikari's POV:

I sit up yawning and look at the clock. It's 6:00 so that leaves me with one hour to get ready, wake up Naruto, and cook breakfast. I get out of bed and start my daily routine, I take a shower, get dressed, and then brush my teeth. When that's done I go to the kitchen and take out two packages of instant ramen and boil the water.

"Naruto get up we have to leave in 15 minutes!" I yell at him.

"Unnggghhhhh... 5 more minutes."

"If you don't get your butt out of bed and get in here I'm gunna eat your ramen!"

I hear some thumping and a crash and suddenly Naruto is in the kitchen dressed and ready to go.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Yes I would now come and eat your breakfast while it's still hot." I say.

"Ok ok - WAIT!!!!! Didn't Kakashi sensei tell us to not eat breakfast?"

"Oh crap! That's right, he did. Dang, I guess I made this ramen for no reason. I guess we can eat it for lunch." I sigh and store it in the fridge,"Come on Naruto, it's time to go, I don't want to be late."

"Yea yea yea I'm coming, sheesh you're so bossy sometimes."

"Oh shut up you big baby. Now hurry up it's almost 7:00."

15 minutes later Naruto and I get to the training grounds. Sakura and Sasuke are already there and, as expected, Sakura is "trying" to flirt with him. It will never work though, Sasuke likes no one but himself and he hates Sakura as much as I do, maybe more. I wish she would take a hint and stop trying to win him over.

(time skip 1 hour)

"Oh. My. God. I am going to KILL our sensei!" I scream.

"For once I'm going to agree with you." Sakura grumbles.

"I'm starving."

"Naruto all of us are starving."

A puff of smoke appears, signaling our sensei's arrival. I notice a book in his hand and turn away in disgust when I realize it's one of those MakeoutParadise books. How can he read those?

"Sorry I'm late guy's I got lost on the path of life." Kakashi says, smilingbeneath his mask.

"Save your excuses for later you perv."

Kakashi sensei glares at me, but sighs and begins explaining whats going to happen with this survival exercise. I listen intently to his explanation and I smile. This whole exercise is based off of teamwork, thus should be a cinch.

(time skip)

Well this exercise is going terribly. No one would listen to me when I said this was a test of team work and now its coming back to bite them in the butt. Pinky is unconscious, Sasuke is stuck, from the head down, in the ground, and Naruto is tied to a post. Why did he try to steal those stupid lunches? I'm the only one left and I know Kakashi is waiting for me to attack him, so my only hope is togo help Sasuke so he can help me. I hate to do it, but it has to be done. I quietly make my way to where Sasuke is and land softly on the grass next to his head.

"Hey Sasuke, need some help?" I tease.

"Oh shut up and help me."

"Fine, but when I get you out we both have to go beat Kakashi sensei together. This exercise is on team work. If we work together we can get the bells. After all, you and I are some of the best in the academy."

"Whatever, just get me out."

"Earth style earth pit!" I yell.

The rock and dirt covering Sasuke widens out causing the hole to grow larger. Sasuke falls to the bottom of the pit and glares up at me.

"Well thanks. That made things soooo much better." he says sarcastically.

"Hey, at least you can move now. Now quit whiningand jump up here."

Sasuke jumpsout and we make our way to Kakashi. I sense his chakra and tell Sasuke to slow down. We jump to some trees a couple feet away and make a plan.

"Hey Kakashi." I say as I land quietly behind him.

"HIKARI!! Come help me. I've been tied to this post for hours!!" Naruto yells.

"I was wondering when you would fight me Hikari. You know time is almost up. You only have 15 minutes until lunch and the rest of your team is having problems of their own."

I smirk. I had hoped he would say that. I knew he would think Sasuke was still trapped in the ground. Now I know my plan won't fail.

"Yea, I know. The funny thing is I tried to tell them that this exercise was about team work but none of them would listen and they all had to pay the price for it." I say, "Poor Sakura. Why did you go so hard on her? You should know she has trouble figuring out genjutsus."

"Quit procrastinating. You only have 12 minutes now."

"Don't worry, I'll have those bells before then."

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"I plan on doing this." I say and slowly lift my hand up.

Kakashi givesme a questioning look and getsinto a fighting stance, ready for anything I might throw at him. I give a thumbs up and Kakashi looks at me. He stands back up.

"That was it? What is a thumbs up supposed t--"

Suddenly Sasuke is on top of a bewildered Kakashi. I've got to hurry up and do my jutsu before he gets Sasuke off of him which, by the looks of it,won't take long.

"Earth style rock chains!" I yell, and Sasuke quickly jumps off our recovering sensei.

I bind our sensei to the ground by chains made of rock and walk over to him, bending down to take the bells. He gives me an unreadable look and I just smile back. I turn to Sasuke and give him a bell then I walk over to Naruto (who is still tied to the post so i untie him) and give him one and then I give one to Sakura, who arrivesjust on time.

"I see you finally made it, Pinky."

"Oh shut up Hikari."

"Hey Hikari what about you? You need a bell to. Here you can have mine, after all, you were the one whoget them in the first place." Naruto offers.

"It's okay Naruto, I think our sensei will find it in his heart to allow me to pass."

"Hey, don't forget about me, I helped too." says a very annoyed Sasuke.

"Whatever you say duck butt." I laugh, "Hey Kakashi sensei, did I pass?" I ask with an innocent smile stretched across my face.

"Thanks to Hikari, you all pass." he says while getting up.

"What about me!!" yells Sasuke.

"And Sasuke too." said Kakashi, "You may all go home, we will be starting missions as soon as tomorrow."

"Hey anyone wanna go get ramen with me and Naruto? It's on me." I say.

"OH YEA RAMEN I'M STARVING!" Naruto yells.

"Of course you are Naruto, you always are." I say, "Seriously no one wants ramen."

"I guess I'll tag along." says Sakura.

"Hn." Sasuke says.

"I'm gunna take that as a yes from all of you. To Ichiraku's!" I yell and point in the direction of my favorite restaurant.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Hikari's POV:

We've been doing a lot of missions lately; sadly all of these missions have been D rank and it's getting REALLY boring. Like yesterday we had to weed someone's garden, the day before that we had to help load up a cart full of goods, and today we had to get some ladies cat back; let's say that cat does not like Naruto.

Right now we're on our way to grandpa Hokage's place to report back on our mission and give the lady her cat. I know it's not my place to decide these things, but I think they should give us tougher missions, I know I'm ready. I'll have to mention it before we get our next mission.

"Good job squad 7. You finished this mission fairly quick." Iruka sensei says, "Now for your next D rank mission you will be help-."

"Umm Iruka sensei, could you possibly give us a C rank mission. I think our team is ready for it and these D rank missions are getting super boring. Please I beg of you, give us a better mission." I plead.

"I agree with my sister. These missions are too easy and I want more of a challenge."

"Even though I hate to admit it, they're both right," says Sasuke, "I want a challenge. I'm ready for it."

I look at Sasuke and give him a smile and he nods back at me. I look back at Iruka and he looks like he's going to kill someone. I regret asking, but at least two other people backed me up, right?

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU CHILDREN!?!? YOU STARTED DOING MISSIONS ONLY A MONTH AGO. YOU AREN'T READY FOR THIS. I CAN'T BELI-!!!!"

"Calm down Iruka." grandpa Hokage says, "Why don't we give them a C rank mission. They are ready for this, but chose something a bit easy to start with."

"Fine. Here's a good one. A bridge builder by the name of Tazuna came here and filed a request for an escort to the Wave country. You will take him there and come straight back, okay? Someone bring the bridge builder in here so he can meet everyone."

All of us stand here in anticipation, this is what we've been waiting for. A door squeaks and I turn around to see a big man drinking sake. This should be interesting.

"Tazuna, this is the team that will be escorting you to the Wave country." Iruka says.

"Who? These little punks?!? I highly doubt these squirts can help me if i get attacked!" Tazuna says angrily.

"HEY! Who are you calling a squirt?!" Naruto and I yell at the same time.

"You've got to be kidding me. Fine, whatever, just meet me at the front gates tomorrow at 7:00." and with that he leaves.

"I don't like that guy." Naruto and I both say in unison.

(time skip next morning)

"NARUTO! Hurry up or we're going to be late and if we're late that Tazuna guy is going to yell at us again."

"I'M COMING HIKARI! NO NEED TO YELL AT ME!!"

"Since you're taking so long just meet me there okay??!!"

I walk outside and soak in the sunshine. It couldn't be a more perfect day and I can't wait to leave the village! I haven't been outside the gates since I got here 6 years ago. I suddenly notice something out of the corner of my eye and realize it's Sasuke. And he's not surrounded by girls! Well that's a first. I guess I'll go over and talk to him then.

"Hey Sasuke, wait up."

"What do you want?"

"I was just going to see if you wanted some company on the walk to the gates, you don't need to be so mean."

"Where's Naruto, aren't you guys always together?"

"Well he was late getting up and I don't want to get yelled at by that bridge builder guy because I was late so I left without him. If he want's to get yelled at then that's his problem." I say, "Oh by the way thanks for agreeing with me yesterday. I was worried I would be the only one who thought those missions were too easy."

"You're welcome I guess."

As we near the gates I notice everyone is there except for Naruto. The bridge builder guy is talking with Kakashi sensei and Sakura is looking a little jealous. Hahaha, I like pissing her off, it makes me happy.

"Hey Sakura why do you look so angry?" I ask in an innocent voice.

"Oh no reason Hikari." she growls through her teeth.

"Good. Anyway Sasuke, what were we talking about again?" I add a girlish giggle at the end of my sentence.

I look at Sasuke and notice he has a small smile on his face. I made him smile! You know what, I've never seen him smile before.

"Okay everyone time to go….. Wait, where is Naruto?" Kakashi sensei asks.

"That baka. I told him he was gunna be late but nooooo he was all stubborn about it."

"WAIT. DON'T LEAVE YET, I'M HERE!" Naruto yells.

"To think that's the kid who's supposed to be protecting me." Tazuna says.

"Okay, now that everyone is here lets go." Kakashi says.

We head outside the gates and I take in the beautiful scenery. I should get out of the village more often, I don't know what it is, but it just seems nicer out here. After a good 2 hours of walking nothing exciting has yet to happen. I look around; the trees are so beautiful here. I look down; the ground is nice and rough here too. I could practice my jutsus. Wait what is that? I look over and notice a fresh puddle of water. That's weird, it hasn't rained for weeks.

"Um Kakashi sensei? Did it rain earlier this week or something?" I ask.

"I noticed it too." he replies.

I turn to ask him another question when these two ninja suddenly come out of the puddle. They grab Kakashi sensei and "kill" him (but I know he's just faking it, no way he could be beaten that easy).They start throwing kunai in my direction and I quickly dodge them.

"Sakura protect Tazuna!" I yell.

"Kakashi sensei. He-he-he's."

"Don't worry about that yet, right now just protect the bridge builder. That is our mission!"

I turn around and head for the two unknown ninja. One of them is heading for Naruto and he's just standing there, frozen. I've got to do something before they kill him. I get out some of my kunai and prepare to throw them, but Sasuke gets there first. I give a sigh of relief and turn to the other ninja. I throw my kunai and it goes straight through the hole in the chains he is wearing causing him toget pulled back and stuck on a tree. I look to see where the other one is but Sasuke already got him.

"Good work Sasuke, and you to Sakura." I say, "Tazuna are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Naruto what happened! You just stood there and let that guy come after you. You could have gotten hurt. Oh no Naruto, your hand. Let me see it."

Sasuke mutters something to Naruto but I can't hear it; I do notice a quick change in Naruto's attitude though. I walk over to Naruto and take his bloody hand, pulling out some bandages and ointment. Kakashi poofs up next me and takes over.

"Good work Hikari, Sasuke, and Sakura. Naruto, why did you freeze like that? If Sasuke hadn't come to help you, you would've been dead. Now, let me see your hand."

"Kakashi sensei, those blades had poison on them. That means it's in Naruto. He might have to go back to get it out." Sasuke says.

"No. I don't want to go back. I can do this." Naruto says as he takes out a kunai. He cuts open his hand and the poisoned blood oozes out. "I promise on this pledge that I will not back down and let someone else rescue me. I will never run away."

Kakashi's POV:

"Um Naruto, nice speech and all but if you don't close up that wound you're going to bleed to death." I say

"WHAT! Ugh somebody help!!" he yells and waves his hand around.

I walk over with my bandages already out and clean the wound. I notice that it is already almost fully healed though. This must be because of the nine tailed fox demon inside of him. I continue wrapping it up and tell Naruto he's going to be fine.

"Now, Tazuna, why where those people after you?"

"What are you talking about? How should I know?"

"Well they weren't after me or anyone on my team. I saw them head straight for you."

"How would you know, you weren't even here to fight! You disappeared and let these children fight for you!"

"When they jumped out of that puddle I let them get me so I could stand by and see who they were after. They went after you."

"Alright fine I'll tell you." he says and sighs.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Hikari's POV:

We're on a boat right now, just entering the Wave country. It's super foggy though and I can't see a thing. Tazuna just told us everything; It turns out this big business guy, named Gato, hired some people to kill Tazuna because if this bridge gets built Gato won't be able to make any money off the village. Kakashi sensei told us this mission was now an A or B ranked mission and that we should go back and get someone else to do the mission, but all of us insisted on finishing it.

"Okay we're almost to shore. We need to get to Tazuna's house quickly. We don't want to risk being found by these assassins." Kakashi instructed.

"Yes Kakashi sensei." we all reply.

The boat hits shore and we all get out. Everyone is silent as we begin our journey to Tazuna's house. According to Kakashi sensei, it's not very far from where we are now, but knowing someone is out there probably watching us and trying to kill us is going to make it seem like a lot longer. A rustle in the bushes on my right snaps me out of my thoughts. Everyone stands still for a second and Naruto pulls out a kunai, throwing it at the tree. Everyone jumps and Naruto just stands there with a grin on his face.

"HAHA! I got it now." He says and walks over to see what it is.

He peers behind the bush to find a white rabbit sprawled out on the ground looking dazed. Naruto quickly picks up the rabbit and starts apologizing to it. I roll my eyes a bit when suddenly I notice something odd. This is a snowshoe rabbit; its fur is pure white. It only turns that color when it's winter and there isn't a lot of sunlight. So this rabbit must have been raised indoors where it's darker.

"Naruto how could you hurt such a cute innocent creature!?" Sakura yells.

"TAZUNA GET DOWN!" I yell and tackle him to the ground.

Seconds later a huge sword is lodged in the tree we were just standing in front of. I look up and see a man wearing a mask like Kakashi sensei's (but it's made out of bandages)pand a Mist village headband.

"Zabuza." Kakashi says.

"Wait, the guy from the bingo book? Isn't he a missing nin and an assassin of the mist?" I exclaim.

"Yes that's him... Wait, how do you know about the bingo book?"

"What... Oh…. uh... What's a bingo book??... hehe." I say and give him a nervous smile.

"Hand over the old man!" Zabuza says.

"Guys, guard the bridge builder and stay out of this fight." Kakashi says.

"Yes sir." we all say and get in position.

All of us stand in a circle around Tazuna, ready to fight if need be. I look over and Kakashi is talking to Zabuza. I don't listen though, in my head right now I'm thinking of a plan in case we do have to fight him. Suddenly Kakashi lifts up his headband revealing his... WAIT!? Kakashi sensei has Sharingan!? I didn't know that, but he's not an Uchiha so how does he have it?

"So I'll have to eliminate you first eh Kakashi? So be it."

"Look he's over there on the water!!" Sakura yells.

"Ninja art hidden mist jutsu." Zabuza says.

He's gone! I did hear once though that he was a master at silent killing or something like that. I bet that's what he's doing and he's going to go after Kakashi first. We have to be extremely cautious or we're going to get hurt.

"Keep your guard up guys. He kills so fast and silent you won't even know you're dead." Kakashi says

"The mist is getting thicker." Naruto says

"Kakashi sensei where did you go? I can't see you anymore." Sakura whines.

"8 points." someone says.

"Huh, what's that?" Sakura squeals.

"Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, kidneys, artery, heart, now which will be my kill point?" Zabuza says.

All of us gasp and look around. I need to find him. If any of my teammates gets hurt I couldn't forgive myself. I hear a noise and the mist starts to clear up a little. I can tell it was Kakashi who did it. Sasuke starts shaking next to me so I look over. He looks like he's going to go insane and now he's starting to raise his kunai to his chest. What's going on?!

"Sasuke!" Kakashi yells, "Calm down. I'll protect you with my life. All of you .I will not allow my comrads to die!"

"I wouldn't be so sure."

Before I could blink an eye, Zabuza is standing behind me. Kakashi turns around and I take action. I pull out my kunai and stab him as quickly as I can, but for some reason water is dripping out of him. Oh no, this means he's made water clones of himself.

"HIKARI! Behind you!!" Naruto yells.

"Prepare to DIE!!" Zabuza screams and raises his giant sword.

Kakashi's POV:

Zabuza disappears in the mist but I find him easily. I copy his water clone jutsu and make some of myself. He appears behind my students and I turn to take him out, but Hikari gets him first. I have to give her points for doing that and actually destroying that clone. Suddenly another clone appears behind her. Naruto yells for her to watch out and as Zabuza raises his sword I push Hikari out of the way with one of my clones. Zabuza laughs as the blade cuts my clone in half, he thinks he killed me, but he takes a second look and realizes it's just a water clone. I poof behind him and hold a kunai to his neck.

"Now it's over." I say.

He starts laughing and talking about how he won't and can't be defeated by a weak ninja like me. Another clone appears behind me so I turn and kill it, but the other one is somehow moving around me so he wont get hit. I turn around to try and hit him but he hits me and sends me flying into the water. This isn't normal water though, it's dense, heavy.

"Water prison jutsu!" Zabuza yells in the water.

"Noooo!!" I yell.

"Now to eliminate your little friends over there."

Oh god. Those kids won't stand a chance against him. They're all going to die because of me, this is all my fault. We should have turned back when we had the chance.

Hikari's POV:

Crap. Kakashi sensei is stuck in Zabuza's water prison jutsu. It's up to us to fight him now. I quickly try and formulate a plan as Zabuza makes more water clones. The only way to get Kakashi out of that prison is to get rid of the real Zabuza, the only problem is finding a way to do that. I glance up at Zabuza and really take in his appearance. He's got a very strong build, he's really tall, probably 4 times bigger than all of us, and he's very smart and clever. He begins talking about how the fact we're ninja is pathetic. Oh no he did not just go there. I am stronger than I look. I'm gunna kick this guys butt. As I'm fuming with anger, he quickly transports to us and kicks Naruto in the stomach.I run to my brother and make sure he's ok.

"Get the bridge builder and run. You can't win this fight!" Kakashi yells.

"Run!?! We can't just run. No matter how far away we get he will always track us down and try to kill us." I say.

"We've got to do this!" Sasuke says.

Sasuke starts running towards Zabuza and throws some shuriken. While Zabuza is distracted he jumps in the air. I watch in awe and hope he can pull this off, to be honest he might just do this. Oh… No wait never mind, Zabuza's got him by the neck. He throws Sasuke a couple feet away and I shake my head, what are we going to do?

"Sasuke!" Sakura yells.

Oh no I better do something fast. Wait what's Naruto doing? He's charging toward Zabuza!! Is he INSANE!?

"Naruto, NO!!" Kakashi and I yell.

Zabuza hits my brother really hard and he flies right into me. Ouch that hurt, but is Naruto okay? I push Naruto off me and check to make sure there is no serious damage.

"What did you do that for Naruto?!? You could have gotten killed!" I yell and notice he has his headband in his hand.

"Even Sasuke couldn't get to him so what made you think you could." Sakura also yells before notcing the headband.

"You did it for your headband?" Sakura and I ask.

"Hey you. Put this in your bingo book. The ninja that will become Hokage of the Village hidden in the leaves never backs down. His name is Naruto Uzumaki. Are you listening Sasuke cus I've got a plan."

"I think I'm thinking the exact same thing you are Naruto, so let's do this!" I yell.

"So you're finally thinking about team work huh guys. Well what's this plan of yours?" Sasuke asks.

"You'll see!" Naruto and I yell.

"What are you guys doing? I told you to run. You will loose this fight. Now go, this is not a test to see how brave you are!" Kakashi yells.

"We aren't going anywhere sensei." I smirk.

"Have you children learned nothing? You are nowhere near ninja." Zabuza laughs.

His clone jumps over to us and punches Sasuke in the stomach so hard that he coughs up blood. Zabuza puts his foot on Sasuke, who is now on the ground, and starts pushing on his stomach.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto yells, "I'm not giving up that easily."

"Go now Naruto!" I yell.

As Naruto's clones pile on Zabuza I use a transformation jutsu and turn into one of our big shuriken while a clone of myself stands there. Zabuza gets all the Naruto's off of him and while Naruto is flying at my clone it places me in his hands. He grabs another big shuriken and hides me in its shadow.

"Sasuke catch."

"So this was your guys' plan." Sasuke whispers.

I get thrown to Sasuke and Zabuza starts talking about how a shuriken will never touch him. Sasuke throws the big shuriken and then me. The big shuriken in front gets caught by Zabuza but since I'm in the shuriken's shadow Zabuza can't dodge me so he jumps. Perfect. I undo the jutsu and turn back into myself. I get out one of my kunai and throw it at the back of his head. He turns around seconds before it hits and I know he knows he can't do a lot about it. Zabuza jumps out of the way in the nick of time and the kunai only slices him under the eye. He turns, faces me with an angry look in his eye, and starts swinging the giant shuriken.

"I am going to kill you!" He screams and throws it.

"Well this is the end of me. I can't dodge this." I whisper to myself, closing my eyes.

CLANG. I open my eyes and Kakashi is there. He stopped the shuriken! I fall head first into the water and begin swimming towards the shore.

Naruto's POV:

HA! Our plan worked! I knew it would all along. Hikari had me scared at first when Zabuza was throwing that shuriken, but thanks to Kakashi sensei she's okay. I see Hikari resurface and I breath a sigh of relief.

"Good plan Hikari, Naruto. It worked really well. You two sure have grown stronger."

"Thanks Kakashi sensei." I say.

"Don't take all the glory for yourself Naruto. Hikari and I were part of it too."

"Whatever Sasuke."

"Our teamwork was amazing guys!" Hikari says, "We didn't even need to tell each other what to do. It's like we already knew."

"Hi five sis."

Hikari and I give each other a high five and watch the rest of the battle between Kakashi sensei and Zabuza. Kakashi is just about to finish him off too when some kid in a mask shows up and throws senbon needles at Zabuza. He says Zabuza is dead but part of me doesn't believe him. Kakashi sensei is checking his pulse though and says he's dead. The kid and the dead Zabuza poof away. I guess we won. I feel much better knowing that guy is gone, I think, as we walk to the bridge builders house.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Naruto's POV:

We made it to the bridge builders house and we've been here for a day now. When we got here Kakashi blacked out from exhaustion. He's been asleep the whole time but he's waking up right now. I decide to ask him about that kid we saw and he says he's some sort of tracker ninja. He kind of spaced out just now though.

"Hey sensei? Kakashi sensei are you okay? What were you gunna say?" I ask.

"I was just thinking. Tracker ninja deal with the body immediately on the spot so there's no room for error." He says.

"Is that really important?" Sakura asks.

"Do you remember what that tracker did with Zabuza's body?"

"I guess he took it away somewhere." she says

"Exactly, but why, he should have started working on him right away as fast as possible. Do you remember the weapons he used."

"Throwing needles." Sasuke says.

"See, none of it really adds up."

"Hmmmm." I think out loud.

"What are you talking about, you guys beat him." the bridge builder says.

"Here's the thing. Zabuza is still alive." Kakashi says.

WHAT!?!?!?!? Still alive, but I saw him and he was definitely dead. Kakashi even checked to make sure of it. Wait, this may be a good thing. Now I can have another chance at him. Hahaha that guy better watch out cus I'm going to finish him once and for all!

"Just you wait sensei. I'm gunna beat him and things are gunna get better. Believe it!"

"No, don't believe it, things aren't gunna get better." a little boy says out of nowhere.

"Who the heck are you!?" Hikari yells.

"Oh, Inari. Come here and give me a hug."

"Mom these ninja are gunna die. Gato and his men will come back and everyone will die!" Inari yells.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?" Hikari and I yell.

"Listen up brat. Do you know what a super ninja is? Well that's me, but a lot better. I'm gunna be Hokage and this Flato or Blato guy is no match for a hero like me!" I yell.

"Ha! There is no such thing as heroes. You're only full of stupid ideas!" he yells back.

Why that little. I'm going to seriously hurt him if he keeps on talking to me like that. How dare he. I'm going to be Hokage one day. The brat leaves and I glare at the spot he once stood in. I'll show him, I'm going to show him a piece of my mind. I head up the stairs and hear crying coming from a room on the right. I peer through the crack in the door and see the kid crying and holding a picture in his small hands. I wasn't that mean to him was I? Aw, now I feel bad.

Hikari's POV:

"All right, training starts now." Kakashi says.

Right now all of us are in the woods by Tazuna's house. Kakashi sensei is going to go over chakra and all that before our training starts. I zone out, I mean come on I already know all about chakra, I am one of the best in the class.

"Climb a tree." I hear Kakashi sensei say.

"Climb a tree?" Everyone says in confusion.

"Wait, what?" I ask, snapping out of my daze.

"Yup that's right, but no hands."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Am I? Watch this." he says and starts climbing a tree using only his feet, "Focus your chakra to the soles of your feet and use it to connect to the tree."

Each of us is given a kunai knife and told to mark the highest part of the tree we make it to. Ha, this should be easy. I stand there for a couple minutes to make sure all my chakra is focused to the soles of my feet. Okay time to-

"Hikari come on you haven't even tried it yet! Hurry up!" Naruto yells at me.

Well there goes my concentration. Okay, lets try this one more time. I focus my chakra to the bottom of my feet again and start walking towards the tree. My foot comes in contact with the tree and I can feel my foot sliding firmly into place. I put some weight on it to make sure it sticks before I open my eyes and start walking upwards. This is easier than I thought it would be. I get all the way to the top and hear Sakura's voice faintly say " Haha this is fun."

"SAKURA! How did you get up there so fast?" Naruto asks confused.

"It's not that hard Naruto!" she yells back at him.

"Ah I see it is one of the girls of our group who has the best chakra control." Kakashi says.

"Hey what about me?" I yell down as loudly as I can.

Everyone looks around my tree for me but can't find me.

"Hey, where's Hikari? I don't see her." Sakura asks.

"I'm all the way up here guys!" I yell.

Everyone's heads snap up and there eyes go wide. I smile and start walking back down the tree.

"Wow Hikari! You're amazing, but just you wait. I'll beat you." Naruto says confidently as he tries again.

"Well Hikari I guess you're done with the training. You mastered that fast." Kakashi says.

"You're really good Hikari. I wish I could go that high." Sakura says sadly.

"Don't worry Sakura, I know you can do it you just need to focus a bit more chakra in your feet." I smile

She looks at me and smiles slowly. Maybe she's not as bad as I thought she was. I sit down under my tree and watch everyone continue trying. Sakura finally makes it to the top and smiles down at me. When she gets back down Naruto looks at her and gives her a funny look. What is he up to? He slowly inches towards her and I overhear him asking her for some advice. I stifle a laugh and look over to see how Sasuke is doing. He's looking over at Naruto with an annoyed expression. Naruto goes back to his tree after Sakura gives him some advice and I hear Sasuke ask him what she said. I laugh when I hear his answer. Oh Naruto you crack me up. Sasuke looks pissed and looks over to me. I look into his eyes and I can tell he's contemplating whether he should ask me or not. He finally starts walking towards me and I smirk. He stands in front of me and I motion for him to sit.

"What do you need Sasuke?" I ask as if I don't already know.

"I was wondering if you could give me some advice on this chakra focusing thing."

"Sure. First of all, don't rush into it. You and Naruto are both trying to outdo each other but if you guys don't stay focused you're never going to get it. When you attempt to walk up the tree take a minute or so to balance the chakra in your feet and make sure it is stable. If you use too much you'll crack the tree but if you don't use enough you'll just fall back down. Second, you need to concentrate on the tree too. If you do that your chakra will even itself out. Third, you have to stay calm. If you don't you'll lose your focus and you'll fall down. That's about it, now go and try again."

I look over and see that Naruto is getting farther up the tree each time he tries. I guess the info Sakura gave him is working, but just you wait Naruto, I think Sasuke's going to beat you at this. I turn back to Sasuke and watch as he stands there focusing his chakra. He starts running at the tree and is about to start climbing. I sit watching, hoping my advice works when suddenly Kakashi sensei is in my way.

"Hikari, Sakura why don't you go to the bridge and guard Tazuna right now. There's nothing left for you to do here." Kakashi says.

I look over at Sasuke and realize I missed everything. Dang I wanted to see how well it worked. Ugh never mind I'll find out later. I look at Sakura and we both start heading for the bridge.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Hikari's POV:

After working at the bridge, Tazuna takes us to the market to buy food for dinner. As we arrive I notice the place is almost empty and there's almost no food! I feel bad for these people. They've been living like this for years, hopefully the building of this bridge will help them make it out of this poor time. When we get back to the bridge builders house, Naruto and Sasuke still aren't back. They're probably still trying to get to the top of the tree, those boys are so hard headed sometimes. Half an hour later, Kakashi comes back but my brother and Sasuke don't.

"Where are they Kakashi?"

"They're still at it Hikari."

"Who's made it the highest so far?"

"Sasuke, but Naruto is catching up quick."

An hour later they finally show up, great timing too because we just finished making dinner. The only problem is now the two of them are trying to out eat each other.

"Okay guys, you're officially grossing me out." I say.

"I must eat more to get stronger than Naruto."

"And I must do the same to get stronger than Sasuke."

"Whatever you say, but I would really appreciate it if you would stop throwing up the food you're eating." I reply.

At that same moment both of them ask for more and then barf all over the floor. If they do that again I might puke too. Sakura gets up from the table and walks over to a picture hanging on the wall. She asks why the picture is torn and who was in it before it was torn. I hear a chair skid on the floor and I look over to see Inari leaving the table. Tazuna starts to explain things and half an hour later we know all about Inari's "dad" and how he stood up to Gato only to get himself killed. No wonder Inari doesn't believe in heroes. After the story Naruto gets up and starts walking outside.

"Where are you going?" I ask.

"I'm going to go train. If I want to prove to Inari that heroes still exist I need to do the best I can and train harder." and with that he leaves.

I go upstairs and get ready for bed. I wait for Naruto but after an hour I give up. He's probably not going to be back till morning. I sigh and pull the covers up over my chin.

Naruto's POV:

I wake up to the sound of birds chirping. I open my eyes only to see a pair of eyes staring back at me.

"I wouldn't sleep out here if I were you. You might catch a cold." A girl says.

"What are you doing out here so early?" I ask the beautiful stranger.

"I was collecting herbs."

"This early in the morning?"

"I like the morning. It's calm and peaceful, but I didn't expect to find a boy sleeping outside."

"For your information I was training so I can get stronger and become the best in my village and gain the respect of the people. There is also a certain person I need to prove something to."

"Is this person precious to you?"

"What do you mean precious?"

"You see when a person has something precious they want to become stronger to protect it."

"Yeah I know exactly what you're saying."

"You'll get stronger, I know you will. Goodbye, I know we will see each other again someday. Oh and by the way. I'm a boy." he says and disappears.

WHAT!!!!! That was a boy? I shake the thought out of my head and look up to see Sasuke coming into view….. and he's walking towards me. He comes up and punches me in the face telling me I missed breakfast and that I'm a loser. Whatever, I'll show him.

Hikari's POV:

"Naruto!... Naruto!" Sakura and I yell.

"Well he's not here and knowing Naruto he can be anywhere by now, and Sasuke isn't here either." Sakura whines.

"GAHH!!" Sakura yells as a kunai lands in front of her.

"Huh? Oh my gosh Naruto you're almost to the top good for you!" I yell and pump my fist in the air.

"Hahaha am I to high for you guys." he says and jumps up, "AHH!"

"NARUTO!" I yell as he starts to fall from the tree.

Sakura is screaming next to me and I start to run towards the tree to catch him when he sticks his feet back onto a tree branch.

"Haha! Fooled you didn't I?"

"I'm gunna kill you Naruto! Don't you ever do that to me again!" I scream up to him.

"I am going to kill you!" Sakura screams.

Suddenly Naruto's feet pop off the branch and he actually starts to fall. I run towards the tree again but someone runs past me (knocking me down) and grabs Naruto before he falls.

"Hurray! Sasuke you saved him." Sakura yells.

So he's the one who knocked me on the ground. I'll make sure to "thank" him later hehehe.

(time skip)

It's dinner time and Naruto and Sasuke still aren't here. If they keep missing meals they'll be loosing strength not gaining it. The door opens and I watch as Naruto and Sasuke come in looking beat up and tired.

"We made it all the way to the top of the tree." Naruto says.

"Good, that means tomorrow you guys will be guarding Tazuna." Kakashi sensei says.

Naruto looks tired. If he falls asleep I'm not carrying him to bed. Drip. Drip. Huh what's that? I look over to find Inari crying again, what's wrong with him now?.

"Hmmm. Hey what's wrong with you?" Naruto asks.

"All this stupid training is just a waste of time. Gato has a whole army out there. He'll beat you down and destroy you. These cool things you say don't mean anything. No matter what you do the strong always win and the weak always lose." He cries.

"Speak for yourself it won't be like that for me got it." Naruto says.

"Why don't you just be quiet. It makes me sick! You guys don't know anything about this country you're just butting in. You don't know what it feels like to suffer and be treated like dirt!"

Okay that just pisses me off. If anyone knows what it's like to be treated that way it's me and Naruto.

"Listen to yourself whining and complaining like some sorry little victim." I say.

"You can whine all day for all I care. You're nothing but a coward." Naruto says.

"Naruto, Hikari, you went to far!" Sakura yells at us as we walk away.

"Guys." she says sadly.

Inari's POV:

I hate them. They're such jerks to me. Heroes don't exist so they should stop trying to act like they do.

"Can I talk to you?" their sensei asks and ushers me outside, "Naruto and Hikari can be a little harsh sometimes, but they don't hate you. Your Uncle told us about your father and how you grew up without him, but you see Naruto and Hikari also grew up without a father…. they never knew either of their parents. Neither of them had any friends in our village, they only had each other. Still I have never seen them sulk, cry, or give up. They've always been eager to join in, they want to be respected, they will put their lives on the line for that. I think they just got tired of crying and decided to do something about it. Even though they are young and still learning they both know what it means to be strong like your father. They know better than any of us what you're going through. Even though what they said to you earlier sounded cruel, they've probably said that to themselves thousands of times."

I sit there a little shocked and watch as their sensei walks away. I think I finally get it now


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Hikari's POV:

Well we're off to guard Tazuna, but Naruto has to be left behind. He used up to much chakra and probably won't wake up till tonight. When we arrive at the bridge all of the workers are on the ground writhing in pain and a thick mist is slowly rolling in. All of us huddle around Tazuna. I knew he was still alive.

"I knew he was still alive." Kakashi says.

"It's Zabuza isn't it." Sakura says.

Way to state the obvious Sakura. Sasuke is shaking again too, please don't tell me he's scared again.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting Kakashi. I see you're still trembling. Pitiful." Zabuza says from somewhere in the mist.

"I'm trembling with excitement." Sasuke says back and destroys all the water clones surrounding us.

"Hmm I see you've gotten smarter since last time we fought. Looks like you have a rival Haku."

"So it seems."

The boy named Haku starts running off and Sasuke runs after him.

"Sasuke NO!" Kakashi yells and starts to run after him but Zabuza grabs our sensei.

"Let the boy go. It's their fight and if you intervene I'll kill you and you're students along with the bridge builder."

I transport myself to Sasuke using a new jutsu I'm learning. It takes a lot out of me though so I have to be careful. He looks at me then at Haku.

"Secret jutsu crystal ice mirrors." Haku yells and suddenly Sasuke is surrounded by ice mirrors.

"Sasuke!" I yell.

I look around and try to think of a plan. I watch as Sasuke tries to get out but he can't. Okay, I know that if I go inside I won't be able to get back out so I need to find a way to help him from out here. I also noticed that Sasuke has gotten faster and smarter. I'll need to start getting better if I have any chances of beating him one day, I can tell he's going to be a great ninja. Sasuke looks at me through one of the gaps in the mirrors and gives me a look. I can tell he's thought of a plan. I nod and get ready when someone crashes into me, sending me flying into the dome of ice mirrors.

"I'm here to save your butt Sasuke! Oh hey Hikari, what are you doing here?"

"NARUTO!!!" I scream at him.

"You idiot! If you had stayed outside the dome you could have helped me break these mirrors like Hikari was going to do."

"Come on Sasuke I was only trying to help." Naruto cries.

I face palm myself when a sudden sharp pain in my leg causes me to yelp out in pain and surprise. I look down and 4 senbon needles are stuck in my leg. Great just what I need, a useless leg. I sigh and get up as Naruto and Sasuke crowd around me, worried about my leg.

"Are you okay Hikari?" Sasuke asks with some emotion in his voice.

"You're gunna pay for that you jerk!" Naruto yells at Haku.

I try to stand up, but my leg is going numb. Dang this isn't good, how am I supposed to fight if I can't move one of my legs. Sasuke helps me up while Naruto tries to attack Haku. Somehow Haku is getting from mirror to mirror really quickly. He starts throwing more senbon needles and I try to dodge them as best as I can but he's aiming for my legs. He get's another 4 in my other leg and 2 more in my already numbed leg. I yelp out in pain again and look at my bloody legs. I fall back on the ground and can't get up. I guess I have to sit here and fight then.

"Hikari!" Naruto yells as senbon hit him in the arms.

"I'm fine Naruto it's only my legs. I'll be fine, just worry about yourself."

Sasuke gives me a worried look and I just smile back. Sasuke is trying to figure out how Haku is jumping from the mirrors so quickly. I look up and for a split second I can see him jumping from one mirror to another and throwing senbon in between his jumps.

"Sasuke! He's jumping from mirror to mirror and throwing the senbon. If you could follow his movements you coul-" I'm suddenly cut off by a senbon being thrown at my neck.

My vision starts to go blurry and I wonder if this will be the end this time. He might have hit a major pressure point. I feel dizzy and Sasuke runs to me and blocks even more senbon from hitting me. I fall over on my side and all the pain in my body leaves me. Naruto runs over crying and says something I can't make out. Sasuke says something too and then I fall into darkness.

Sasuke's POV:

"Sasuke! He's jumping from mirror to mirror and throwing the senbon. If you could follow his movements you coul-" Hikari yells at me when she suddenly yelps out in pain.

I look over and see a senbon lodged in her neck. I run over to her just in time to block more senbon heading towards her. She falls over and I shake her and tell her she's going to be okay. Naruto looks over to see what all the commotion is and starts to cry. He runs over to and grabs Hikari.

"Hikari! Oh god this is all my fault. I shouldn't have knocked you in here with me." Naruto cries.

"Thank you Hikari for telling me what Haku's doing. I'll beat him for you." I say.

She looks at me and her eyes start to close slowly. I can feel Haku watching me but I don't care. I shake Hikari again and try to wake her up. I check her pulse and feel that it's slowing down. Oh god, she's dying.

"HIKARI WAKE UP!" Naruto yells as her eyes fully close.

"Naruto, she's dead." I say slowly, not sure if I fully believe it myself.

Naruto sits there crying as I get up. I'm pissed off now. I'm going to avenge her no matter what it takes. I look up at Haku and start to yell at him.

"You just killed one of my team members," I say as anger quickly builds up inside me, "YOU'RE GUNNA PAY FOR THIS!"

I start doing my fire jutsus but they aren't working. I suddenly remember what Hikari was telling me before she… well… never mind. I look up and try to watch as Haku jumps from mirror to mirror. I look over and notice Naruto is still sitting there crying and getting hit by senbon needles. If he stays there he's going to die too. I throw some kunai to block them but most of them still hit him.

"Naruto she's dead! Now move or you're going to end up just like her!" I yell, trying not to sound to insensitive.

"I'm going to kill you!" Naruto screams at Haku.

Good, he's motivated. I look up again and start to see Haku's movements more clearly now. It's like he's slowing down or something. Maybe he's tiring out. I look for an opening and do a fireball jutsu on him. It almost hits him, but he dodges at the last second and throws more senbon at me. I dodge but I realize to late that Naruto is behind me. The senbon hit him in the back and he blacks out. Great, now it's just me. I try more fireball jutsus and one of them hits him. So he must be slowing down, but I'm almost out of chakra so what does it matter? I can't go on much longer. 5 minutes later I'm unable to do anything else. I stand there and Haku starts to talk to me. I ignore him and try to think of a plan. I look over and he pulls out more senbon, he's stupid if he thinks I can't dodge those. It's a waste of senbon needles. Haku throws them and I get ready to dodge them but they go in the opposite direction of me. My eyes widen as the needles draw closer to Naruto's, now stirring, body. Before I know what happens I feel a sharp pain in my neck and start to go dizzy.

"Sasuke. Why did you do that? I could have dodged them!"

"Don't ask me why I did it. I didn't mean to, it just happened." I whisper.

I fall to the ground as all the pain in my body begins to fade away. The last thing I think of is if this is how Hikari felt when she was dying.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Naruto's POV:

This is all my fault. Hikari is dead and now Sasuke is too. I shed a couple more tears and then will myself to stop. I yell at Haku again, my anger rises with each word I say. The next ting I know I'm covered in a red light. I scream loudly and fall to the ground as my finger nails and teeth start growing bigger. I let out a roar this time and the whole ice dome lights up with the red light. All the mirrors break and Haku is thrown to the ground. He gets up to defend himself but I'm to quick. I punch him several times. He gets up and tells me to go ahead and kill him. I start to run towards him but stop before I hit him. My anger dies down and the red light goes away. I can't do it. No matter how badly I want to I can't do it. I lower my hand and look up at him. He looks at me and the mask he's wearing starts to crumble and fall off his face. I gasp as the face of the girl, I mean boy, I saw in the forest a few days ago appears.

"YOU!!" I yell.

"Yes me. Now if you'll excuse me I realized that there is one more thing I can do for my master before I die. You don't need to kill me anymore." he says and poofs away.

I look around trying to figure out where he went when I see Kakashi sensei does this cool thing with lightning. He's about to kill Zabuza when suddenly Haku appears in front of him just in time to take the blow. I start running towards Kakashi sensei and see Haku's lifeless body fall to the ground. Kakashi catches him and lays him down gently. Zabuza's just standing there. He's not even shedding a tear for his lost comrad. I run up to him but Kakashi sensei stops me before I can hit him.

"You jerk!" I yell, "He was your partner and he just saved your life and all you're doing is standing there emotionless. Do you even care that he died! I saw him in the forest the other day and we started talking. He asked me if there was someone precious to me. I didn't know what he was talking about so he told me that someone was precious to him and he would do anything for that person. Even give up his life for them. I now know he was talking about you and now that he died for you all you can do is stand there!"

"Shut up. That kid meant nothing to me. He was only a pawn to me."

"How can you say that!" I yell.

"Hey Zabuza how hard is it to kill one stupid bridge builder?" some guy says.

I turn around and see a short and fat guy standing there with a huge group of thugs with weapons behind him. Who is this guy.

"Listen Gato just give me five more minutes." Zabuza says.

"No. Your bill is getting to high and I can't afford to pay you. These guys behind me cost less so they're going to kill you, but if you could kill a couple for me before you die that would be great."

"Hey, copy ninja, since I've been fired from this job you're not my enemy anymore so you don't need to worry about me attacking you."

"I understand. So what are you going to do now."

"I'm going to avenge Haku's death by killing Gato!" Zabuza yells and starts running towards the crowd with a kunai in his mouth.

I watch as he runs through them, killing people and getting stabbed with knives and spears as he goes. He runs straight for Gato and slashes him across the stomach, pushing him into the water, and killing him. All the thugs crowd around an almost dead Zabuza, yelling about how they want their money. Some guy in the group says they should go ransack the village and take everything. They start running towards the village and I get ready to step in and stop them when an arrow lands in front of the group of thugs.

"If you want to get to our village you'll have to go through us first!" Inari yells.

All the thugs look up and see all the villagers carrying weapons and make a run for it. Kakashi sensei and I go to Zabuza and see he's about to die. He asks to be taken to where Haku is so we carry him over as snow begins to fall from the heavens. Zabuza says that it must be Haku and he tells the dead Haku how much he loves him.

"I'm going to a different place than you are Haku. I wish I could see you smile just one more time." and Zabuza dies.

"Hey Naruto where are Sasuke and Hikari?" Sakura asks.

I look down and the ground and tears start to fall from my eyes. Sakura gasps and runs to Sasuke. Kakashi comes over to me and kneels down to look me in the eyes.

"Naruto, do you know what that red stuff around you was?" he asks.

"No." I say and I hear Sakura start to cry.

Kakashi and I slowly start to walk over to where Hikari and Sasuke's bodies are. Sakura starts to laugh and cry at the same time so I look up to see Sasuke getting up. So he wasn't dead he was just knocked out! I leave Kakashi sensei's side and run to Hikari. I drop to the ground and put her head in my lap and gently stroke her hair. I check her pulse again but there is none there, not even the faint trace of one.

Sasuke's POV:

I feel something wet running down my face and I slowly open my eyes. Sakura is on me……. crying.

"Hey Sakura, can you get off of me?" I ask.

Her head snaps up and her eyes widen in disbelief. She starts hugging me and laughing and crying at the same time. Kakashi sensei comes next and helps me up. I look around and see Zabuza and Haku laying on the ground a couple hundred feet away. Wait where's Hikari. Oh god. I turn around and start running towards Naruto, who is holding Hikari's head in his lap. He's crying again and I can feel tears in my eyes too. When I get there I also fall to my knees and pick up her wrist to find a pulse. There isn't one. My head drops and I look at her calm face. I hate to admit it, but I thought of her as a friend. She's the only girl who doesn't drool over me and she's always been nice to me even though I haven't been nice to her or Naruto. Sakura and Kakashi are standing next to me minutes later. Kakashi pushes past me and picks Hikari up. He looks over her and starts taking all the senbon needles out of her. I look down at myself, all covered in blood and needles, and do the same.

"I need to take her to the hospital. Naruto you and Sakura stay here with Tazuna. Sasuke you come with me, you need to get checked out as well."

I nod and look at Naruto. He's still on the ground so I walk over and hold out my hand. He takes it and I help him up.

"She'll be fine Naruto, I was only knocked out so maybe she is too." I say as kindly as I can.

Kakashi motions me over and we leave for the hospital.

Hikari's POV:

A beeping noise is the first thing I hear. I try to open my eyes but they just won't. I hear a door open and someone sits in the chair next to the bed. I can tell it's Naruto when he starts stroking my hair. He lays down and curls up next to me and I fall back asleep. I wake up again later and Naruto is still laying on the bed with me. I try to open my eyes again and this time it is a success. I look around and see a white hospital room. I look over at my brother, who is sleeping peacefully , and at someone sitting in a chair. It's night time so I can't see really well. I squint my eyes and notice Sasuke is there. Thank god Naruto and Sasuke are okay! Did anything happen to Sakura and Kakashi sensei. Or the bridge builder? Did we win?

"So you're awake." Sasuke says.

"Yea, how long have I been out?"

"Just a day."

"Did anyone else get hurt? Did we win? What happened to Zabuza and Haku? Did we win? Wait I asked that already."

"I'll tell you everything that I can but you'll have to ask Naruto for the rest."

"Why, what happened to you?"

"Same thing that happened to you."

"Are you okay now?"

"Yeah I'm fine."

Sasuke tells me everything that happened up to the point when he got knocked out and from when he woke up to what happened in the hospital. He also told me the bridge should be done tomorrow so we can go home when it's done.

"Where are Sakura and Kakashi sensei?"

"They're guarding the bridge builder just in case."

"Hi-Hikari. Is that you, are you awake?"

"Yes Naruto, I am."

"Thank god you're okay! I was so worried about you. I thought I lost you." Naruto says while hugging me.

"So what happened after Sasuke and I were knocked out?"

Naruto told me the rest of what happened and I had to give points to Zabuza for admitting he loved Haku. The door opens and Sakura and Kakashi sensei walk in.

"I see you're up Hikari. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine sensei. I was told everything that happened and I heard we can leave tomorrow."

"You heard correct." Sakura says, "I'm glad you're okay Hikari. You had me worried."

"Thanks Sakura."

The next morning:

"Goodbye everyone. See you later!" I yell.

"Don't cry Inari. We'll visit soon, believe it." Naruto says.

Tazuna finished the bridge and named it The Great Naruto Bridge. I think it's a pretty catchy name. The rest of us start walking as Naruto finishes talking with Inari. When he's done he catches up with us and we all head back to the village.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Hikari's POV:

Ever since we got back from the mission we went on last week, Naruto's been thinking he's the most amazing person ever because of the bridge named after him. It's starting to get on my nerves. For example, right now as all of us are walking home from our training session, Naruto is boasting about being the strongest out of all of us.

"Naruto, shut up." I mumble grumpily.

"Hey Sasuke why don't we go train together so we can work on our teamwork."

"No thanks Sakura. You should be training by yourself right now because you need all the training you can get. You're a terrible ninja. You might even be worse then Naruto." Sasuke says.

"Worse than N-Naruto." Sakura says sadly.

Sasuke walks away and Sakura turns around to face us.

"Worse than Naruto." she whispers again.

"Hey Sakura why don't you and I go train together and work on our teamwork?" Naruto says.

Naruto looks over to Kakashi sensei to ask him something but he poofs away, probably sensing something bad will happen between Sakura and Naruto. The look on Sakura's face makes me a bit worried. Suddenly a giant puff of smoke comes from inside a box that is supposed to look like the ground and Konohamaru jumps out with Moegi and Udon in quick pursuit.

"Hey Naruto how was the mission? Hey who's that girl, is she your girlfriend?" Konohamaru asks.

Oh no, he did not just say that. Sakura turns around looking really pissed off. She charges at Konohamaru and throws him and Naruto into the wall. I back away a bit.

"Ughhhh..." Naruto says.

"Gosh she's a jerk, and did you see that forehead." Konohamaru says.

Oh crap. I start making a run for it and grab Moegi and Udon as I go. Sakura is so pissed off it's not even funny. She starts to charge at Naruto and Konohamaru and they start running for their lives. They catch up to me faster than I first anticipated and Konohamaru gets in the lead of all of us. I look behind me and wish I hadn't. Sakura is closing in when all of a sudden I hear Konohamaru cry out as he runs into some guy. I come to a stop and look at the guy closely; he's wearing purple face paint and a hat that makes it look like he has cat ears. A girl is standing behind him; her hair is held up in four ponytails and she's carrying a big fan on her back. The boy in the cat hat grabs Konohamaru by the shirt collar and lifts him up into the air.

"I hate it when brats like you don't watch where they're going." cat boy says.

"Hey put him down!" Naruto yells.

"I would put him down if I were you Kankuro. He could get here any second." the girl says.

"I have to teach these brats a lesson Temari." Kankuro says.

"You better put him down or you're gunna be in big trouble!" Naruto yells and starts charging at him.

Kankuro twitches his fingers and some of the ground comes up, tripping Naruto. Okay that's it, now it's my turn. I use a jutsu that covers this Kankuro guy's feet in rock so he can't move. I feel a strong chakra nearby but I ignore it for the moment. I run up to him and kick him in the stomach, do a flip over him, and land on the thing on his back. I stand up and look around, trying to find out where this chakra is coming from but Kankuro pulls the thing on his back out and gets ready to use it. I do a back flip and land in front of him. He's still holding Konohamaru so I get ready to grab for him when a rock hits Kankuro in the hand.I look up and see Sasuke sitting on a tree branch. I roll my eyes.

"You always like to make an entrance don't you." I say and everyone looks over to the tree and stares at Sasuke.

"You know I do." he says, "I would put him down if I were you. Things can get very ugly if you don't. Did you see how that girl in front of you hit you and did all that before you could blink. Well I'm ten times better than her."

"Hey. I could beat you in a fight any day." I say.

"I'm going to teach you all a lesson." Kankuro says.

I grab Konohamaru and push him behind me as I get into a fighting stance. I feel the strong chakra again and I finally figure out where it's coming from. I look up into the tree Sasuke is in and a guy with blood red hair and the Kanji love symbol carved on his forehead is standing there upside down.

"Hey you in the tree, who are you?" I yell.

The red haired boy gives me a glare that could kill someone and jumps down. Sasuke and everyone else stand there amazed that they hadn't noticed the kid in the tree before.

"Stop it Kankuro. You're a disgrace to the village. If you do that again I will kill you." the boy says.

"Y-yes Gaara wh-whatever you s-say."

Ha, Kankuro looks like he's gunna crap his pants. They start walking away and Sakura calls out to them.

"Hey you're not from here. I can tell by your headbands, but you aren't allowed in another village unless you're given permission, so state your business."

"Have you been living under a rock? We're here for the chunin exams." Temari says.

"The chunin exams. What's that?" Naruto asks confused.

"I tell you guys what it is later." I say.

"Wait, you, what's your name?" Sasuke asks.

"Who me?" Temari blushes.

Great another Sasuke fan girl. I seriously don't know what they see in him. Gaara turns around and and glares at him.

"My name is Gaara of the desert. I am interested in you too. And you." He says pointing at me and Sasuke.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha."

"And I'm Hikari Uzumaki." I smile.

"I bet you're dying to know who I am." Naruto shouts.

"I could care less." Gaara says and walks away.

I sigh and watch as they leave. He's actually kind of cute. I blush and turn around. I can't think about that right now, but something is definitely different about him, but I can't seem to put my finger on it.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Hikari's POV:

Kakashi gave us each a sign up sheet for the chunin exams and all of us filled one out. Good thing too because even if one team member said no we wouldn't be able to participate, although I refrained from telling them that little detail. And now the day has finally come for them to start. Right now we're all on our way to the third floor of the school building. We head up the stairs and get to the third floor only to see two boys beating up and making fun of other genin. I go up to them and tell them to quit it or they're going to get hurt, but when I turn around they kick me in the back and I fly into Naruto.

"Delicate little girls don't belong here. You'll probably only get hurt so why don't you go home and play with your dolls!" one of the kids says.

"Delicate? You think I'm that easily defeated? The only one going to get hurt here today is you!" I scream at them and take them down a minute later.

"Who's the delicate one now you little brats." I say, "By the way everyone this is only the second floor. These punks put a genjutsu on us."

"Well you're a smart one aren't you." One of the boys says," Now let's see you deal with this."

He comes at me and I'm about to kick him when Sasuke pushes me out of the way and tries to kick him instead. They were about to hit each other when some kid with extremely bushy eyebrows and a funny looking outfit jumps in and stops both of them.

"Hey what happened to 'don't let anyone see our skills'?" a boy with the long black hair says.

"I know but.."

"Whatever, what's done is done." he says.

"Hello my name is Rock Lee, are you the one know as Sakura?" Lee says to Sakura.

"Uhhh yeahhhh….. why?" she answers.

"Please be my girlfriend I promise to love and protect you at all times." he replies.

I burst out laughing and Sakura gives me the death glare. She says no and that he's a weirdo; poor Lee. The guy with the long hair that's on Lee's team comes over and asks for me and Sasuke's names. Naruto gets all depressed because he's beginning to realize that no one wants to know his name; poor Naruto.

"It's common courtesy to give your name first before you ask for someone else's." Sasuke says.

"What did you say to me?" the boy asks." How old are you anyway, you look like rookies."

"Whatever." Sasuke says and walks away.

"I'm Hikari Uzumaki. Nice to meet you." I say.

"I'm Neji Hyuga. Nice to meet you too. So anyway who was that rude kid."

"Oh that was Sasuke Uchiha. Sorry about him he's kind of a jerk like that sometimes…. More like all the time actually. Anyway as you asked before all of us are 12. How old are you and your team."

"13. So you guys are rookies huh. Fresh out of the academy."

"Yup. I've got to go, my team left without me. I'll see you later. Good luck, it was nice talking to you."

"Goodbye."

I run up the stairs and look around for the rest of my team. Where could they have gone, I've only been talking for a couple minutes? I run around the place and don't look where I'm going. The next thing I know I fly into someone and knock us both to the ground. I look at who I landed on while apologizing profusely and notice it's Gaara. I get off of him and stand up. His siblings are staring at me and at Gaara as if they're waiting for him to do something. They look really scared for some reason. I hold out a hand to help him up but he just growls at me. I pull my hand back and suddenly I'm encased in sand up to my head. I am thinking of only 2 things right now. 1) I wish I could control sand; that would be flipping AWESOME. 2) Why the heck is he doing this to me? I hope he knows I freak out if I cant move, but then again he doesn't know me so I don't know why I think he might know that.

Gaara's POV:

My siblings and I are walking to the room of the first test when someone slams into me, sending us both to the ground. I get really angry and look to see who it is that I'm going to kill next, but I'm a bit surprised when I see 2 bright blue eyes staring into my sea foam green ones. Hikari starts apologizing and gets up off of me. I'm not as angry now but I feel like I need to kill someone. She holds out a hand to help me up but I growl at her. I encase her in sand up to her neck and get up off the ground. I look at her to see her expression. If she thinks I'm a monster I'll kill her, if she doesn't I'll let her live a little longer. Her eyes go wide and I realize she must be thinking I'm a monster. I squeeze the sand a little tighter and she gasps in pain.

"Let me out of this sand Gaara. I hope you know I hate it when I can't move, I hate feeling trapped. I freak out and let me just say you don't want me to freak out, it can get ugly. If you don't believe me go ask my brother."

"So you don't think I'm a monster?"

"Why would I think you're a monster?" she says confused," Is it because you control sand? To be honest I wish I could control sand, I think it's the coolest thing ever."

I remove the sand from around her and she falls to the floor. She gets up, dusting off the sand stuck on her, and starts to talk again.

"I'm sorry for running into you, but if you'll excuse me I have to go and find my team. I'll see you later okay."

She turns down the hallway in search of her team members and I just stand there watching her go. When she's out of sight I turn around and keep walking. Temari and Kankuro stay frozen in place.

"Y-you didn't kill her." Temari says amazed.

"I didn't have time to." I say.

I start walking again and this time they follow. The whole way to the testing room I think about Hikari and how she didn't think I was a monster. She doesn't know about him though so that's probably why. She'll be afraid of me when she does see him. Everyone always is.

Hikari's POV:

I run back down the hallway waving to Gaara as I go. Does he really think he's a monster because he can control sand or is there more to the story. Hmm, I wonder.

"Ughh I have to find them we have to be at the first test in 10 minutes. Where could they b-" I get cutoff as I run into yet another person and fall to the ground, taking them down with me once again.

What is with me and running into people today. I start apologizing again and notice that it's Naruto I ran into. Thank god I found them.

"Sorry about that Naruto. I was looking for you guys. One minute you're here and the next you're gone. We have to go to the first test now or we'll never make it in time. So hurry up."

We all run to the doors and make it with 5 minutes to spare. Kakashi sensei is waiting for us and tells us he's glad we all came because if we didn't none of us would have been able to take the exams. We walk into the room and hundreds of eyes stare at us as if we're fresh meat. Sakura gulps and I hear very familiar voices screaming Sasuke's name.

"Oh Sasuke I haven't seen you in so long. Where have you been?" Ino cries.

"Get your grubby little hands off of him!" Sakura yells back and they start getting into a fight.

"Oh great you guys are here too. I knew this was gunna be a drag." Shikamaru groans.

"Hey... munch, munch, munch... I see you made it too." Choji says.

"Great the three stooges are here." Naruto says.

"HEY!" Shikamaru yells back.

"Well, well, what do you know. The whole gang is back together again." Kiba says.

"Hey Hinata, hey Shino, hey Kiba." I say from behind Naruto.

"So you guys made it to. I see all the genin that passed made it." Shikamaru says.

"You bet and my team is gunna beat all of you." Kiba says.

"I have a hard time believing that Kiba. I could beat you right here right now if I wanted to." I say.

"WHAT!" he yells.

"Hey I would keep it down if I were you." says some guy.

"Who are you?" Naruto asks.

"I'm Kabuto," he says and I look at him suspiciously. I don't trust this guy one bit, somethings off about him.

"But seriously look around you." he continues.

I look around and notice everyone is staring at us. I feel so embarrassed now. I slowly shrink back behind Naruto and listen to what Kabuto is saying. He shows us these card things with info on them about different people competing. I still don't trust him though. Sasuke asks to see cards on Rock Lee and Gaara. If he wanted to know about Gaara he could have just asked me. Anyway turns out Lee has no skill in genjutsu or ninjutsu but he's amazing at taijutsu. And I also found out that Gaara has gone on 11 C rank missions and 1 B rank mission and has come back from all of them without a single scratch. Kabuto tells us how all the ninja here are very skilled and will not hesitate to kill us if they get the chance. Naruto starts shaking and I think I'm a bit worried to.

"Naruto you don't need to worry about anything," Sakura says thinking Naruto is scared and probably trying to reassure herself of that too," We'll be jus-"

"MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI AND I'M GUNNA BEAT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!!!" Naruto yells.

"Hey what is that idiot trying to do, get us killed!?! Tell your boyfriend to shut up!" Ino screams.

"Who's boyfriend!?!" Sakura yells back.

"Oh yeah that's right you can't get one!" Ino yells again.

"What did you say!?" Sakura yells.

"Oh Yeah!" Naruto screams," I feel a lot better now."

"WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU NARUTO!!" I scream at him and punch him to the ground.

I look around and everyone is giving us the death glare, even Gaara and his teammates.

Gaara's POV:

Those rookies up in front are being loud and obnoxious. That yellow haired kid is now screaming out his name and says he's going to beat all of us. His last name sounds familiar though. It's the same one as Hikari's so they must be related.

"That's that same boy from before right?" Kankuro says.

"He yips just like a little dog." Temari laughs.

I watch as Hikari slams her brother to the ground and starts yelling at him. A lot of the people in here are getting mad, they better be careful. The ugly pink haired girl is yelling at him now too. This kid is stupid. The sound ninja nearby start running towards the front. Kankuro notices and starts to take out his puppet. I hold him back, this is getting interesting. The first sound ninja throws some kunai which the boy with glasses easily dodges then the second ninja throws a punch and the boy barely dodges it. The boys glasses break and he starts to throw up on the floor even though he didn't get hit. I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit confused as to what just happened.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Hikari's POV:

"All right you baby faced degenerates listen up! It's time to begin." Ibiki says.

Yea that's right, I know Ibiki. I had to sit through a punishment with Naruto because we painted the academy purple over night. Ibiki was the one who watched us as we cleaned and then repainted it white.

The exams are finally about to begin. I've been waiting a while, we all have. Ibiki is making us each pick a number and we're supposed to sit in that order. I sit in between Gaara and one of the sound ninja. I'm a little worried about these sound ninja guys; if my thinking is correct and they can use sound waves to cause damage to other people then this is not going to end well. Ibiki starts to tell us what our first test is and I almost die. It's a written test. Naruto is going to fail this.

"Okay first I have some important rules. If one or more of your teammates fails this test the whole team fails and is disqualified. If you get a question wrong one point is deducted. No cheating, if you are caught three times you and your team fail and are disqualified." he says.

I bang my head on the table a couple times. If Naruto fails we all do. Gaara is staring at me, he probably thinks I'm insane. Ibiki lets us begin and I read over the questions. I groan and bang my head on the table again. Naruto is going to doom us all. Okay Hikar,i think. Maybe I can somehow get my answers to Naruto without anyone noticing. Yea that's it. I'll use one of my jutsus to take my paper over to Naruto so he can copy it. Now the only problem is I have to answer these questions and it's not going to be easy. I think about this more thoroughly and realize they want us to cheat to see how well we gather information without being caught. I look around for someone with an answer key and think of something I can use to get the answers. I find someone who looks like they have all the answers. Hmm how am I going to get the answers?That's it! I'll get Sasuke to show me the answers, assuming he has them already that is. I look over to him and he lifts his head up as if sensing I'm watching him. He turns towards me and I motion down to my paper. He nods his head and motions toward the ceiling. I look up and there are mirrors. He attaches some chakra strings to them and starts adjusting the mirror. I nod my head when I can see the test and I start copying down the answers. Okay now I have to get them over to Naruto. Forget my last plan of getting him my paper because that won't work. Think Hikari think. You have 30 minutes till times up and the last 15 minutes are for the tenth question so that leaves me with 15 minutes to get Naruto the answers. I think I know what I'm going to do. I look over to Naruto and calculate the distance between us. It's a bit far but I might just make it. I attach some chakra strings to Naruto's pencil and then I pick up my pencil and start writing.

Naruto's POV:

Oh no time's almost up and I don't have a single answer written down and I might get caught if I try to cheat. What do I do. My pencil starts to move in my hand and I look at my hand in confusion. My pencil starts witting on the paper and I flip out. My pencil is haunted! Oh wait what's it writing. Naruto... it's me... Hikari... move the pencil... to the first... question box... and I'll write... the answer down... for you. What the heck. I look over at my sister and she looks up at me and nods. Okay whatever I guess I have no choice. I move my pencil to the first box and it starts writing the answer for me. 5 minutes later all the boxes are filled out and I sit back and relax a little. That was a close one.

"Okay everyone listen up. It's time for the tenth and final question." Ibiki says," But first I have a couple more rules."

A door opens and everyone turns around to see that Kankuro guy coming back from the bathroom.

"I hope your trip to the bathroom was enlightening, now sit down. As I was saying, each of you can chose whether or not to be given the final question. If you chose not to take it though you will fail which means both your teammates fail as well.If you do decide to answer the question and you get it wrong your whole team will fail and you will never be able to take the chunin exams again." he says," So if you don't want to answer the question raise your hand and you and your team may leave."

Oh crap what do I do. Maybe the question will be easy but what if it's not. If I get this wrong I'll be a genin the rest of my life. All these other ninja raise there hands and many people begin leaving. I slowly raise my hand and slam it back down on the table.

"I will not give up and I will not back down. You can't scare me. Even if I do fail this question and have to be a genin the rest of my life I'm still going to be Hokage some day. Try as hard as you like but I'm not leaving." I say and sit back down.

"Is anyone else going to leave? Then I guess there is only one thing I have to say….. You all pass."

"WHAT!!??" everyone yells.

I'm confused about this tenth question thing. Was there even a tenth question? At least I passed though, right? Suddenly a loud crash echoes through the room and everyone looks over to see a woman standing next to Ibiki.

"Heads up boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating! I'm your next proctor, Anko. Ready for the second test? Good lets go follow me everyone."

Who the heck is this lady, is she for real? She just crashed through a window and now she wants us to follow her. She's crazy.

"You're early... Again." Ibiki says.

"How many are there. Ibiki you let all these guys pass!? Your test is too easy or maybe you've gone soft."

"Or maybe this years candidates are stronger."

"Sure don't look like it. Trust me, when I'm done with them more than half will be eliminated."

"More than half, really!?" Sakura yells.

"This is gunna be fun. Alright you maggots have had it easy so far, but things are gunna be different starting first thing tomorrow morning. I'll let your squad leaders know where to meet me. You're dismissed." Anko says.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Hikari's POV:

I grab Naruto and we leave as soon as we can. We walk around with Sasuke and Sakura for a bit until Naruto's stomach growls.

"Hey Naruto why don't we go to Ichirakus to celebrate us passing the first test. I'll pay."

"Deal. I bet I'll beat you there." he says getting a head start.

"No way I'm going to lose to you!" I scream and get in the lead, leaving him to eat my dust.

"Ha you'll never catch up to me now!" I yell, "I'm gunna win this time you block hea-"

I slam into someone and fall to the ground, landing on top of them in the process. What is wrong with me today, this is the third time I've run into someone.

"I am so sorry I wasn't watching were I was going. I don't know what's wrong with me today this is the third time I've run into someone. I am so sorry."

I look up and stare into the prettiest sea foam green eyes I have ever seen. Gaara's eyes. This is the second time I've run into him today.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to run into you. Again. This is the second time. This usually doesn't happen." I realize I'm still on top of him and I blush, and quickly get off of him," I promise it won't happen again."

"Hey what happened to you?" Naruto asks.

"Uh nothing I just ran into Gaara. Again."

"Hey, whats wrong with you guys?" Naruto says pointing to Temari and Kankuro.

I look over and they are both standing there looking pale. They look down at Gaara and then at me. Temari starts to say something but closes her mouth again.

"Uhhh are you two okay?" I ask.

"Hikari we have to go. I'm hungry." Naruto complains.

"I'm coming just give me a sec. Look I'm really sorry but I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow." I wave as I run after Naruto.

Gaara's POV:

My siblings and I just finished eating dinner and we're on our way back to the hotel. Both of them are arguing over something stupid so I tune them out. I turn left on the street we're walking on when someone slams into me sending us both to the ground. Okay that's it, whoever did this is going to die.

"I am so sorry I wasn't watching were I was going. I don't know what's wrong with me today this is the third time I've run into someone. I am so sorry." a girl, who I recognize as Hikari, says.

I look up at the same time she does and I am met with her blue eyes. I could get lost in those eyes. She goes on about how sorry she is and that it won't happen again. I hold back a blush when I realize she's still on top of me. She realizes it too and quickly gets off of me. That yellow haired boy Naruto comes up behind her.

"Hey what happened to you?" Naruto asks.

"Uh nothing I just ran into Gaara. Again." she says

"Hey, whats wrong with you guys?" Naruto says pointing to Temari and Kankuro.

I glance up at them. They look down at me then at Hikari. I know what they're thinking. They're wondering why I haven't killed her yet. It's true though, if it had been anyone else who ran into me they would've been dead before they knew they ran into someone.

"Uhhh are you two okay." she asks.

"Hikari we have to go. I'm hungry." Naruto complains.

"I'm coming just give me a sec. Look I'm really sorry but I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow." she says, waving while she runs after Naruto.

I get up off the ground and keep walking towards the hotel. I don't know what it is but somethings different about her.

Naruto's POV:

"Naruto! Get down here and eat breakfast! We have to leave in 20 minutes!" Hikari yells from the kitchen.

"Ughhhh 5 more minutes." I groan.

"Do you want me to eat your ramen."

She wouldn't. I take a quick shower and get dressed. I run down the stairs with 10 minutes to spare.

"Eat quickly. We still have to meet up with everyone and find out where we're supposed to meet this Anko lady."

"Yea I'm eating as quickly as I can." I say.

As soon as I'm done Hikari drags me out the door and we head for the bridge to meet Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi sensei. We are the last ones to get there and Kakashi sensei tells us where to go. We all head off and I try to talk with Sakura but she just hits me in the head and calls me a baka. I wish she would stop doing that. When we get there all the other teams are waiting and Anko begins explaining things.

"Gosh this whole place creeps me out." Sakura says.

"It should, that's why it's called the forest of death, and soon enough you're gunna find out why." Anko says.

"They call it the forest of death, and soon enough you're gunna find out why." I tease," Do your worst you're not gunna scare me away. I can handle anything."

"So, looks like we've got ourselves a tough guy." she says and throws a kunai at my face and poofs behind me, "You tough enough to handle this? You're not afraid are you? Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest."

She suddenly turns around and takes out a kunai and points its behind her as a grass ninja holds out her tongue with Ankos kunai in it.

"I was just returning your kunai knife." the grass ninja says.

"Why thank you grass ninja but I wouldn't sneak up on me if I were you." Anko replies.

"I'm sorry." the grass ninja says.

I wish I could do that with my tongue.

Hikari's POV:

Oh Naruto. Why do you have to be so stupid sometimes?

"Now before we begin this test I have something to hand out to you all. It's just a consent form. Before the test all of you need to sign this form because some of you may not come back from this test and I have to get your consent to that risk. Otherwise it would be my responsibility. Now I'm going to explain what this test is about. The first thing you need to know is that this test is testing every one of your survival skills. First I'm going to tell you about the terrain. This battle field has 44 locked entrance gates, rivers, and a forest inside. There is a locked tower in the center. This is an anything goes battle to get both of these scrolls. Each team will be given 1 of these scrolls, either the heaven scroll or the earth scroll. Your entire squad must make it to the tower with both of these scrolls. Oh and one more thing, this test has a time limit. You must get both of these scrolls to the tower in 5 days."

"Five days!" Ino yells.

"What will we do for food!?" Choji screams.

"There is plenty to eat out there." Anko says.

"Yes but there are also plenty of other things in there to. Like poison's plants and man eating beasts." Kabuto says.

"This is a challenge indeed." Lee says.

"Whatever you do though. Do not look at the contents of these scrolls until you've made it to the tower. Now each team take there consent forms over there in exchange for a scroll. After that pick a gate and wait there until they open. And one more word of advice. Don't die." Anko says.

Well that's reassuring. I sit down somewhere and fill out my consent form. One of the jonin says they're ready to start handing out scrolls so I meet up with my teammates and we go get our scroll. We get the heaven scroll and then we go wait at gate 12.

"Believe it. I dare you to bring it on ninja I'll just send it right back twice as hard!" Naruto yells and punches the air.

"We are so gunna win this thing." I say.

The guy standing in front of our gate unlocks the gate and opens it. We walk inside and Naruto makes some short speech about how we're going to win this thing. We run into the trees and find a spot and sit down to talk things over. It isn't long until we hear screaming and we look around.

"I do not like this place." Sakura says.

"Oh come on. There's nothing to be scared of we're gunna be fine. Uh excuse me a second I really have to go to the bathroom." Naruto says and walks over to the bush.

"Naruto. Go do that somewhere we can't see you!!" Sakura and I yell at him.

"Ah that was a lot. I wrote my whole name." Naruto says minutes later when he comes back.

I run at him and pin him to the ground with a kunai pressed against his neck.

"Hikari what are you doing!? Are you insane!?!" Sakura yells at me.

"It's not the real Naruto." Sasuke says," The cut on his cheek is gone and his shuriken holster is always on his right leg."

"What?" Sakura says in confusion.

Sometimes that girl is so stupid. The guy pretending to be Naruto transforms back into his real self I jump back and stand by Sasuke. The grass ninja says he's going to take our scroll. Yea right. he's never gunna get this scroll from us. We all get in a fighting stance and the grass ninja charges at us. Sasuke uses one of his fire jutsus while I use one of my wind jutsus, which makes Sasukes fire jutsu more powerful. It misses so Sasuke jumps in the air and hits the ninjas kunai with his own. I do another wind jutsu and send the guy flying into a tree.

"Hey someone get me out of this!" Naruto yells.

I look down and there he is tied up so I throw a kunai and cut him out. Sasuke dodges some kunai but one of them has a paper bomb on it. He dodges that but the grass ninja gets behind him and almost stabs him but Naruto throws a shuriken. I focus my chakra at the bottom of my foot with a kunai under it and throw it at the grass ninja, he dodges it but doesn't notice Sasuke coming at him until he stabs him in the stomach. Nice one Sasuke. The grass ninja runs off and I sit down next to Sasuke.

"This proves we can't just trust appearances. We have to come up with something that will assure us that we are who we say we are and not some impostor using a transformation jutsu. We need a password. How about this one. When I ask when does a ninja strike you will answer a ninja waits till the time is right. When a ninja sleeps it drops its guard. With its weapons forgotten in the stillness of the night that is the moment for a ninja to strike. Got it?" Sasuke says.

"I got it." Sakura and I say.

"Do you have one a little shorter? I mean I got it but I just thought it was gunna be a pass word not a pass speech." Naruto says.

I get why Sasuke wants one so long. He knows people are listening in on us and he also knows Naruto would never remember such a long password. So if another person impostors as Naruto again they will say the whole thing and that's how we will know it's not Naruto. Smart thinking Sasuke.

"Okay now let me hold the scroll." Sasuke says.

"But Sasuke I thought- Ow what was that?" Naruto says.

A strong wind suddenly picks up and hits us hard sending us flying backwards. I fly back a couple hundred feet away and hit my head really hard on a tree and black out.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Sasuke's POV:

"Alright, you two fan out in the forest and keep your eyes open. I'll handle this." the grass ninja says.

I watch as the creepy grass ninja that could make her tongue really long tells her partners to leave. I hear a noise behind me and Sakura is there. I tell her to recite the password and she gets it perfect as I knew she would. Naruto comes over next and I ask him to recite the password as well. He gets it perfect as well and I know it's an impostor. I throw a kunai at him and he jumps back.

"I have to say you are quicker than the last one."

"What are you doing now, he got the password perfectly right." Sakura says.

"Exactly. The real Naruto could never memorize that and get it word for word." I say.

"Aren't we the clever one." the fake Naruto says.

He poofs back into the creepy grass ninja.

"Tell me. If your teammate is really that stupid why did you come up with a password he would never remember?" she asks.

"It wasn't meant for Naruto but for anyone who might have been close enough to eavesdrop on us. It was meant as a trap, and you fell right into it." I say.

"I'm impressed." she says, "This promises to be very entertaining."

She takes out an earth scroll and Sakura gasps a bit.

"So you need an earth scroll. Well depending on who wins one of us will be walking away with both scrolls. And the other will be dead." she says and swallows her scroll whole.

Suddenly horrible images of my death flash across my mind and I'm paralyzed. I fall to my knees and so does Sakura. We've got to get out of here and away from her, she's death.

"Ha, you're paralyzed with fear." she says.

What's wrong with me. Come on I have to move. Move. Move Sasuke move. That's it if I can just get my hand a little closer to my kunai pouch. You can do this. Yes. I take my kunai out and stab myself in the leg, shocking me out of my frozen state, and stand up.

"Very good. Now what happens? Don't worry I'll make it quick. But I don't have to tell you that do I, you've seen it with your own eyes. I expected you to be more of a challenge. How disappointing." she says.

It's no use, I can't move again. I've got to do something before she kills us. Where are Hikari and Naruto when I need them? She lifts up her hand, getting ready to throw the kunai at me and Sakura. She throws them and I try to act as fast as I can. I stab myself with the kunai I'm holding and I grab Sakura and jump away.

Naruto's POV:

"Ugghhhh... That hurt." I groan.

I get up and look around. Where did Sakura, Sasuke, and Hikari go. A giant shadow falls over me and I look up. Holy crap is that what I think it is!? A giant snake lunges at me and I go flying. Its tail comes at me and wraps me up so I can't move. It picks me up and puts me towards its mouth. Oh no I do not want to be snake food. Too late. It swallows me whole and I go down its slippery throat. I try to cut it open with a kunai but it's no use. Wait a second, maybe if I feed it my rice ball it will let me go. I throw the rice ball and the snake digests it. Oh god that's gunna be me in another minute. Is this really how I'm going to die? By being digested by a giant snake. No way it's not gunna end like this, I'm getting out of here.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" I yell

Suddenly hundreds of me fill up the snakes stomach and it blows up leaving me covered in snake goo. Okay now I have to go find the rest of my team. I jump off in search of them only to find them being attacked by that creepy grass ninja. I throw some shuriken at her before she can get to Sasuke who is freaking out for some reason. That's not like him.

"Looks like I came just in time!" I yell.

"Naruto!" Sakura yells.

"Oh and by the way. What was the password again?" I smile.

"Forget it, I know it's you. You came!" Sakura says.

"Naruto get out of here! What are you thinking, you don't know what you're up against. Hurry, go now while you still can!" Sasuke screams.

"So you managed to escape from my friend. Well done." she says.

I get it. That wasn't a random snake it was sent by her, or it or whatever she is.

"I don't know what's going on here, but I don't like it when people pick on my friends. Now you better get out of here, snake lady, before I make a pair of shoes out of you!" I yell.

"You can have it. The scroll, it's what you want right? Well you can have it if you leave us alone." Sasuke says.

"Are you crazy? We can't just hand our scroll over to the enemy! What's wrong with you!?" I yell.

"Shut up and stay out of it!" Sasuke says.

"Very wise, very smart." she says.

I can't let him do this. I jump down and grab the scroll as Sasuke throws it to the snake lady. I land next to him on the tree branch and stand up and face him.

"Stop trying to be the hero Naruto. Just stay out of this and leave it to me!" Sasuke says as I turn around and punch him.

"You stupid fool! You don't know what you're doing!" Sasuke yells.

"I may not know the password but I know who I am, you're the one I'm not so sure about. How do we know you're who you say you are." I say.

"It's him Naruto, don't be so stupid!" Sakura yells.

"It is me you loser." Sasuke says.

"Liar. You may look and sound just like him, but the Sasuke I know would never give up. The Sasuke I know would never become a coward. You keep saying I don't understand but I do. You choked! That's what happened!" I yell.

"I can just kill you to get the scroll, so maybe I should finish it now." the snake lady says.

"Let's see you try to!" I yell and charge at her.

"NO NARUTO DON'T!" Sasuke yells.

"Summoning jutsu." she says.

A giant snake appears and lunges at me. I dodge as it tries to eat me over and over again. One of them hits me though and it sends me flying through a couple trees. I'm angry now. I can feel a shift in my chakra and I feel more powerful. I kick the snake and punch it multiple times. The snake lady uses a fire jutsu and I get stuck right in the middle of it. I fly back through more trees, again. I look up and the giant snake is heading towards Sasuke but he doesn't try to dodge it. I jump up and stop it before it hits him. The snake lady grabs me by my shirt collar and lifts me up to her height.

"You are a very interesting boy." she says to me.

"Let me down so I can beat the crap out of you!" I yell as she dose this weird thing with her fingers.

She puts this weird fire stuff on her fingers and lifts up my shirt. She pulls her hand back then slams it into my stomach, making me writhe in pain. I scream and then I get very weak. She throws me into a tree and I can feel my self falling.

"Nobody hurts my brother!" I hear before blacking out.

Hikari's POV:

I wake up in total darkness. How long have I been knocked out. I sit up and look around Where am I. More importantly where is my team. I get up and start jumping around looking for any sign of my team. I get to a fallen tree trunk with kunai stuck in it and drying blood on the ground. I look around and listen for any sudden noises. I hear some crashes and follow it. The crashing and noises start getting louder and I finally find myself in the middle of a battle between Naruto and that creepy grass ninja. I notice something weird about Naruto though. His eyes are different. They look like my eyes. Like the eyes of a... No he can't be, that's impossible! Suddenly the grass ninja slams her hand into Naruto's chest and throws him towards a tree.

"Nobody hurts my brother!" I yell as loud as I can.

I throw a kunai knife to catch my brother from falling to his death and he hangs there in the tree. The grass ninja extends her neck and bites Sasukes neck. He starts crying out in pain and he falls to the ground unconscious. I jump down and stand in front of Sakura as my anger grows larger.

"Sakura, take Sasuke and Naruto somewhere safe. I'll take care of this guy."

"But-"

"GO!" I yell.

She nods her head and grabs both of them. She carries them away as fast as she can until they are out of sight.

"Listen lady. I don't know who or what you are but nobody, I repeat NOBODY, messes with my brother and my teammates!" I yell.

"So the nine tails is your brother?" she says.

"My brother isn't the nine tails. He can't be, that's impossible."

"Or is it?" she says and lunges at me.

I dodge it easily and use one of my fire jutsus against her. She also dodges it easily and she sends her giant snake after me. It hits me with its tail and I go flying but I bounce of a tree branch and fly at the snake. It opens its big mouth and swallows me whole. Perfect. I do a quick fire jutsu and burn the snakes stomach. At the same time I do a wind jutsu which makes the flames bigger and causes a larger burn. The snake hisses loudly and starts to thrash around. I do a multi shadow clone jutsu. The snake blows up from the inside out and I fall to the ground covered in snake guts.

"You are also an interesting child. Almost as interesting as your brother." snake lady says.

I charge at her again and do and earth jutsu that puts a dome around her. I leave a small opening and do a fire jutsu then a wind jutsu. I then close the hole in my dome and wait to see if it worked. i don't hear anything and I start to get the feeling something isn't right. Suddenly a hand comes out of the ground and grabs my leg. The snake lady comes out of the ground fully and lifts me up.

"You are strong for such a small little girl." she says.

I use my free leg and kick her in the face and send her flying into a tree. The anger inside of me grows even more and I can feel the 2 tails trying to get out. I let out some of the chakra and I feel stronger.

"Interesting. So you are a jinchuriki like you're brother. How odd. Is he older than you or younger than you?"

"Older by 3 minutes." I say with a growl in my voice.

"Oh. I see. You're twins. This make things even more interesting than before."

She summons another giant snake and it comes towards me. I get ready to do the same thing I did before but somethings different, where did the lady go. Oh no. I turn around but too late. She stabs me in the stomach with a kunai as the snakes tail lands on me. I get crushed into the ground and I feel as if every bone in my body is broken. The snakes tail is lifted off of me and the lady bends down over me. She sneers in my face and I cough up blood. It splats all over her and she picks me up by the neck. She throws me with so much strength that I crash through 4 rather large trees and land in a small clearing. She walks towards me and lifts me up again. I look her in the eye and do a jutsu behind my back.

"Say goodbye little girl."

"GOODBYE!!" I yell and do a fire jutsu.

It hits her square in the face and she drops me to the ground and stumbles backwards screaming in pain as half of her face melts away to reveal another one. I try to get away but my legs don't want to work and I'm to weak from the fighting and the chakra loss.

"I see you are also clever." she says as her voice changes to a mans voice, "I wasn't expecting that."

"Who are you? And what do you want?" I ask.

"My name is Orochimaru. As to what I want, I want your friend Sasuke Uchiha. He's going to seek me out one day for my power. Just you wait and see. It was nice knowing you. I had fun fighting you. I just wish we could do it again sometime."

So I guess that lady was actually a guy? I'm really confused right now. He walks over to me and kicks me in the stomach. He picks me up one more time and throws me far into the forest. I fly through trees and finally fall to the ground leaving a large dent in the dirt. I try to get up, open my eyes, do something, but I'm so weak that I can't. I call out for my team before blacking out.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Gaara's POV:

"Sand coffin." I say.

"No please you can take our scroll just let us live!" my opponents scream in terror.

"Sand burial."

The screams of my two opponents stop and blood splatters everywhere, just the way I like it.

"Hey look it's our lucky day. They had an earth scroll." Kankuro says.

"Whatever. Lets go." I say and start jumping through the trees.

We get halfway to the tower when I hear noises coming towards us. Someone comes crashing through the trees and lands on the ground. I see red hair and I know who it is. I look in the direction she came from and I can see Orochimaru with half of his real face showing. She must have put up a good fight. Orochimaru glares at me and I glare back. I walk to Hikari, who landed a couple feet away, and pick her up. She's covered in blood and looks badly hurt. I start moving towards the tower, keeping her in my arms the whole way. If I get there in time I may be able to help her. I get there 20 minutes later and look around for my siblings. I must have been walking too fast for them. I go inside the tower and lay Hikari down on the ground . I look around for bandages but remember I never get hurt so I have no need to carry them around. I sit and wait for Temari to show up, she'll know what to do. They get here minutes later out of breath.

"What has gotten into you? You left us there." Temari says.

"Help her."

"Help who? Oh you mean her. Why should I, since when have you cared for anyone but yourself?" she replies.

"Do it now."

"Fine, whatever you say. Kankuro, do you still have water on you?"

"Uh yea, here you go." he says and hands her a bottle.

"Give me all the bandages you have." she says as she gets out hers as well.

"Uh, here this is all I have."

"That's fine. I also need something to wipe all this blood off with. Do either of you have a cloth?"

I tear off a bit of my cloak off and hand it to my sister. She takes it and drenches it with water and starts cleaning Hikari's wounds. The time seems to drag on, but it's only about half an hour till she's done.

"I've done everything I can. She broke an arm and 5 ribs and she was stabbed. This must have been one heck of a fight. She fought hard though, if only she knew Orochimaru can't be defeated. Where do you think her team is?" Temari says.

"I don't know but she's staying with us until they get here." I say.

"What is so special about her Gaara? You would never have done this for someone else, so why her?" Temari asks.

"I don't know."

Sakura's POV:

It's been a while since I've heard any noise coming from the direction I came from. I wonder how Hikari is doing. I would go get her but I can't leave the boys here alone while they're both unconscious and running fevers. I put a cold washcloth on Naruto and Sasuke's foreheads. She better be okay. Naruto is going to kill me if he finds out I left her to fight that creepy lady alone. I sigh and stand up. I better go set up some traps just in case. 30 minutes later I sit back down and try to stay awake.

(time skip next morning)

I've been up all night. I can barely keep my eyes open and I'm hungry but I can't leave them alone. Neither of them has woken up yet and Hikari is still gone. I don't think she's coming back either. I know she must have gotten hurt, but I can't go look for her. Hopefully someone finds her and helps her out. I know all the rookies will and Rock Lee's team but I think that's it. Lets hope no one evil finds her. I look over at Naruto and Sasuke. I hope they wake up soon. We need to go find both scrolls and I keep hearing noises and I don't think I can defend both of them alone if someone attacks. I wish someone would help me. Oh Hikari where are you!?

Gaara's POV:

I watched her all night last night while trying to figure out why I feel so different around her. She's wasn't afraid of me when we met, maybe that's why. When she finds out about him though she will be afraid of me. I sigh. Why does life have to be so complicated? I get up and go outside. Temari and Kankuro left to go get water and food 4 hours ago, but the moon is rising and they still haven't come back.If they want to take this long they better be stocking up to last us the rest of the days we're here.We've been in this tower since yesterday and we still have 3 more days to go until this test is over. I walk back inside and sit next to Hikari.

Sakura's POV:

It's been 2 days now and they still haven't woken up. I haven't eaten or drank anything either. Hikari must be badly hurt if she's not back yet, or maybe she just hasn't been able to find me. This is bad. Suddenly a noise puts me on alert and a chipmunk jumps out of the bush and heads straight for one of my traps. I throw a kunai in front of it and it turns around and leaves. I go back to watching over Sasuke and Naruto but I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. I start to fall asleep but catch myself before I can. I need to stay awake.

"Some lookout, you're half asleep." someone says behind me.

"Now wake Sasuke up we want to fight him." 3 sound ninja say.

"What's this bruise on Sasuke's neck? The snake lady we were fighting, I know she was calling the shots from the shadows. You're behind this aren't you and now you want to fight him when he can't defend himself!?" I yell.

"First I'm gunna kill you, then I'm gunna kill Sasuke." the younger one says and gets ready to fight.

"Wait Zaku. She set up a trap and threw the kunai so the chipmunk wouldn't spring it. Now we kill her."

I watch as they jump over my very obvious trap and I cut the string on my other one. A giant log hurtles towards them from the air. Ha, I bet they weren't expecting that. The sound ninja break through it and head towards me again…….. Crap.

"Leaf hurricane!" someone yells.

"What the!?" I say to myself as Lee attacks the ninja and lands in front of me.

"Who are you?" a sound ninja says.

"I am the handsome devil of the leaf village and my name is Rock Lee." he says.

"What are you doing here Lee?" I ask.

"I will always appear when you are in trouble Sakura."

"But right now on this test I'm your enemy."

"Sakura I already told you. I will protect you until I die." he says.

"Yes. Thank you Lee." I say.

"It looks like I have no choice. Zaku, I'll let you have Sasuke. I'll take care of these two." he says and charges.

I throw a kunai but it does nothing. Lee starts to fight and I watch in amazement. Lee is an amazing fighter, he's strong and smart. He starts to do the move he did on Sasuke earlier, where he kicks his opponent in the air, wraps them in bandages and hurtles them to the ground at an enormous speed. I watch as one of our opponents is slammed into the ground and I cheer Lee on. I think he did it, now there are only 2 more sound ninja to go. Wait, it didn't work. The sound ninja gets off the ground and runs towards Lee with his arm extended and throws a punch. Lee dodges it but he is still affected somehow.

"Lee no!" I yell.

"Your jutsu is indeed fast but ours is faster, it travels at the speed of sound. Effort by itself does nothing. Now watch we're going to show you something called the wall." the sound ninja says.

The other 2 sound ninja smirk and I know this can't be good. The sound ninja who tried to punch Lee starts explaining how the thing he wears on his arm helps send the sound vibrations to a very high pitch and then into a part of your ear where it can cause you to loose your balance and make you feel sick. Great just what we need, an attack that is hard to dodge.

"You should stop fighting us now. You can't win with your taijutsu, not that you're not good at it. You see I can manipulate ultrasonic waves and air pressure and do things you've never even dreamed of." Zaku says.

"Little girl it's your turn." the other guy says.

He charges towards me and I try and think of something I can do that can help me but not put any harm towards the boys. I take out a kunai and get ready. Lee jumps up and tries to hit him before he can hit me. He misses because of what happened to him only moments ago. The guy throws more punches at Lee and the noise becomes unbearable and he faints.

"No Lee!!" I scream.

I throw kunai at the man, but he deflects them. I throw more shuriken and they just blow them back at me. It's no use, there isn't much I can do, but I can't give up. I need to protect my teammates. The girl in the group comes up from behind and grabs me by the hair. I yelp in pain and try to get out of her clutches.

"Hey Zaku I know what would be fun, lets make miss beauty queen watch while you finish off that Sasuke guy." she says.

"Why not. Sounds like fun to me." Zaku says.

Dang what can I do. I can't move. She's right I do need to spend more time practicing. I start to cry. I have no strength left and they're going to kill my teammates. Way to go Sakura. You let everybody down again. What good are you, even now when the others really need me I can do nothing to help. How many times have they saved my neck. You would think maybe just this once when it's life or death, you think just maybe I could come through.

"Okay let's get this over with." Zaku says and walks towards Sasuke.

I take out a kunai and lift it up.

"Come on, it's pointless, that won't work on me."

"It's not meant for you." I say and cut my hair.

"Sakura be careful." Lee whispers.

"Kii finish her!" Zaku yells.

I turn around angrily and make some hand signs. I make a substitution of myself and throw kunai at him. He blows them back and I use a substitution again. I come from the air this time and he throws more kunai, and looks for another me, but what he doesn't know was the last one wasn't a substitution. I land on him and stab him with a kunai in the arm. He yells in pain and I bite his other arm. He starts punching me in the head but I take the pain and keep biting his arm. I've got to win, I need to prove I am useful and not just dead weight. He finally punches me off of him and he comes over and starts kicking me. I look over at Sasuke and Naruto one last time. Hold on, why is Sasuke emitting a purplish chakra off of him. That's strange I haven't seen that before. Zaku picks me up around the neck and throws me back down to the ground and starts kicking me again.

"Say goodbye kid." Zaku says when suddenly Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji are standing in front of me and blocking Zaku's way.

"Ino." I whisper.

"Surprised. I swore I would never let you show me up didn't I." she says.


End file.
